Best of Both Worlds
by GotenXTrunks
Summary: A prince wishes for freedom, and finds friendship and love in a very unexpected place. By: Chocolate-chan
1. Chapter 1

I do not own this FanFic, i am posting this so i can share with every one who can't find it other than ht home webpage. I read this years ago and tried to find it and it took me 1 year and 4 mounts. and by posting it up here i can add a copy to my fanfic reading app on my cellphone. so injoy XD!

home page: fanfiction/a_

The Best of Both Worlds  
By: Chocolate-chan  
Warnings/spoilers: AU, Yaoi, Lemon

"Prince! Prince, wait up, please!"_  
Not this time,_ the Prince thought in reply, spurring his horse on to greater speeds as he smirked over his shoulder. The powerful dust-streaked flanks of the prized white horse flashed in and out of view below him, both rider and horse working to maintain the balance and the long run. Really, who would have wanted those three retainers with them all the time anyway?  
"Nay!" The prince grimaced distastefully; their mission in life was to keep him from having any fun, just as his parents would do were they here. Delightful. His mother would do just such when he arrived at home, he was sure. "You'll have to catch me, knaves!" He got many of his jollies by teasing his retainers._  
Really, father, you choose the most inconvenient moments to die._ The Prince's thoughts were self-absorbed as he raced over the flat lands that ended abruptly at the gate to the capital city. Although this land around belonged to the tiny country of his birth, it was usually referred to as "Mountain Country," where secret reserves of minerals in the soil would make a man, indeed, an entire nation, rich. _Who would imagine I'd be king before my eighteenth birthday?_  
He had discovered among his travels that his father, the King, had died suddenly and rather unexpectedly from food poisoning. The people in the towns he had encountered had swigged their mead and liquor, chanting the lyrics to a new song, - "Ah, food poisoning, what won't it cure?" and stopping abruptly when they learned the heir was among them.  
At the top of a cliff on the circuitous route that the Prince had chosen, he reined in his horse and contemplated. The banners were out on the castle, was the first thing he noticed. A rare smile touched his solemn lips when he spied the one on the right, ragged, made entirely by his sister, the princess, who lacked all the sewing skills a princess should have.  
As his lone horse approached the open gates, the guards, usually ceremonial, snapped upright, glanced at him, and realized by his erect carriage and quality clothing who he was, and spared a thought for why the Prince was unescorted- hadn't he left with retainers?  
"All Hail!" _Yes, yes,_ thought the Prince wearily. _We've been through this..._  
"Welcome home, Prince Trunks!"

Before even allowing himself to rest and bathe, though he was scoured with road dust, Trunks brought himself to the throne room. Inside he was announced immediately, and waited patiently while his mother's petitioners were dismissed. "Mother, how are you faring after the tragic news?"  
"I had hoped you wouldn't pick it up on the road, my son." The Queen rose and held her hands out to him, and he took them gingerly. "We are all saddened."  
"I'm sorry I missed the service," he said, allowing a little remorse to creep into his tone.  
"There is still much business that must be covered before we might grieve," his mother said, gravely. She pushed back the smallest piece of her fine blue hair that had escaped her crown and style. "I have sent word to King Tsukihito. You marry Princess Antoinette in two weeks."_  
Two weeks? _The Prince's mind protested. _I lose any freedom I might have had in two weeks?_ But he repressed the sigh that wanted to force itself from his chest._ I don't even _know_ Princess Antoinette._ If he thought complaining would do him any good, he would, since his parents had indulged him totally as the crown prince. His mother might in that case give him her sympathy, but otherwise would arrange nothing. She had been engaged to the young Prince Vegeta before even knowing the King sought him a bride.  
"Afterward, we'll be holding the coronation. I trust this will be acceptable as I have arranged it?" His mother looked at him a bit hopefully, dreading to hear his unwillingness to participate in some arranged marriage, but Trunks was long past the point of resistance.  
"All will be as you suggest, mother." He bowed a little from the neck as he stepped back from her and let her resume her position on the throne. "Only, I should feel much more comfortable if the coronation were to precede the wedding?" Put the most stressful off, although he would be preparing to marry, learning the histories, managing the funds and the records and settling disputes all at once...  
"I suppose it will be considered polite to entertain the Princess here for a while..." she mused, and finally said that wedding would be held in three weeks, after the coronation in two weeks.  
"Thank you for your indulgence, my queen," he said humbly enough and rather formally, still registering his protest in the only way allowed. "Now this poor traveller shall collapse in peace and spare your eyes from his dirty presence." He grinned slightly at his mother as he moved away.  
"I believe your sister wished to see you when you arrived." His mother called after him. Trunks turned his steps toward her suite with a weary sigh.

Her rooms were vacant, and Trunks turned to find her, but happened to make his task easy by glancing from the hallway windows and seeing her plaited blue hair by the duck pond, tossing breadcrumbs onto the water. He made his way down the stairs and out to the ground floor. "Sister!"  
"Trunks-nii-chan!" Bra called as she realized who called her. She threw herself at him, delighted, and he hugged her before setting her carefully onto her feet again.  
"And how fares my favorite little princess?" He inquired sedately as they sat on the stone bench together.  
"Not half again so little!" She insisted as was her way. "And it seems to be common knowledge!"  
"What sayeth thou, sister? Some court brutes I must teach a lesson for being fresh in the lady's presence?" Trunks gestured wryly to the sword that hung at his side, as his sister shook her head.  
"Not from the court! These twice-damned suitors coming sniveling from these little countries around us, crying at the door night and day for the hand of the 'fair Bra-Hime'... I swear the next one that thinks of coming to my window to serenade me will have my chamber pot as a cap!" Bra twisted her dress in frustration.  
Trunks blinked, only mildly put-off. "Well, and when they hear the mouth of our lovely princess they will think twice and twice again, will they not?" He deliberately kept his tone mild, daring her to find a trace of teasing.  
"You are as good as my father now, Trunks-nii-chan... as good as King."  
Trunks started and frowned. "We have not even come upon the coronation and already I sense a request coming."  
With the jig up, Bra threw herself into her brother. "Please don't send me off to be the serving wench of some dirty little country where I know no one and have none of my ladies with me!" She could easily conjure tears when upset, but kept them at bay as he was wise to her.  
"Bra-chan, in everyone's life there is the onus of marriage. It is a thing to be borne, and all of the jockeying and arranging in the world would not allow you to become a shamefully old maiden as you might desire! I'm sorry that none of these princes are to your liking, but..." _This is my problem indeed, isn't it?_ "Mother says that over time you grow to love someone."  
"Do you?" Bra asked softly. "It's unfair. Why couldn't I have been a poor villager far away, and be allowed to marry whom I please?" She crossed her arms and pouted her pretty pout.  
"Believe you me, imouto-chan, I sympathize. As for serving wench, however, if I ever hear of such- why, I'll come and steal you back!" He vowed, and earned a grin from his sister as a reward.  
"Just don't marry me off to that weasle-eyed prince from Leighston..."  
"You know if it were up to me, you and I would play in the meadow forever. Shouldn't you be addressing your pleas to mother?" Trunks put a hand to her cheek gently as she stared at the grass glumly. "I'll argue in your favor," he promised.  
"Arigatou, nii-chan. You should go wash," she told him, holding her nose with good humor. "You stink of the road."  
_Finally, maybe I'll get to relax,_ Trunks told himself. _And who knows, maybe Princess Antoinette will be the most beautiful princess ever conceived of by the mind of man. With my luck?_

Trunks began to throw himself into the work of managing the kingdom as soon as he was able, and as the time to the coronation ticked down and his newness wore off he got more and more comfortable. He met with the head of defense for the castle one evening, and the two walked through the castle and examined its defenses as they talked.  
There was a shout down the hall, and as the two frowned at once and moved quickly to its source, the guards began to clamor toward the front hall, there to gain exit from the castle.  
"What's going on?" Trunks asked loudly to those guards that were still in their original position.  
"Bandits, Ouji-sama," came the respectful reply from one of the guards. "The ones from the forest are stealing from the markets again, sir. I think one of them is ...throwing rocks at the castle?"  
"Why?" Trunks asked, unable to think why one would do such.  
"None has dared ever before, sir. This one seems young..."  
"Capture him," Trunks said after a moment's thought. _I wish to see who hates us so much..._  
"Already done, sir. We will take him to be executed at once."  
Trunks blinked, unsure as to how that command had reached the guards' minds. "Now who gave you that order?"  
The guard paused, uncertain. "I'm... sorry, sir. The standing command from your father before you was upon encountering one of the bandits they were to be executed. What are your orders, Ouji-sama?" The guard was humble, so Trunks let it pass.  
"I said, 'Capture him.' I wish to see what he's about." They bowed and went away.  
"My father," muttered aloud. "He _would_ do something like that." The head of castle defenses was a likable man who heard him grumbling and laughed aloud.  
"Aye, and he would. He was a particularly harsh one, him. Begging your pardon for offenses against the dead, but that was one of the meanest people I ever laid eyes on." The man spat onto the stone floor as if to rid himself of the recollection, and Trunks merely raised an eyebrow.  
_Whoever this lad is.. he wouldn't speak to me, the Prince of this region and the forest he lives in, now would he? How now..._ The Prince mused on it until an idea came to him.

He was treated roughly, though not as bad as a prisoner might. The guards gave him curious glances, the 'Wild Man' of the forest or whatever stories the rich royal children told each other. It was his own fault he was there in the first place, and his family had already disavowed responsibility for him, in the event he 'do something stupid,' so he was to blame for being there.  
_Yeah. Smooth._ He sighed and allowed himself to be shoved into the cell without resistance. He tripped over something that was stiff yet yielded slightly.  
_Hmm.. I thought from their description that he would be younger, a boy of ten or twelve._ But the figure that sprawled onto the straw was nearly Trunks' age. He peered curiously out from his hood at the young man, who grumbled slightly to himself.  
"Hotheaded?" Trunks repeated the one word he had picked up, and that in a curious voice. "I would say one would be hotheaded or desperate at least, to be thrown in here." The young man spun around at the sound of the voice.  
"Who are you?" The young man demanded suspiciously.  
"No one," Trunks answered in a sigh. "A poor man who begs on the street, until it gets to where there is no food for the poor to be had, and then one must steal and be thrown in prison." He pulled his cloak, one that had affected the appearance of rags but was actually good quality, tighter around him.  
"Were you thrown from your home as my family was, by this nasty corrupted regime?" The boy's answer was sympathetic, and Trunks only shrugged slightly as he pondered that.  
"I am too young to remember how I came to be poor, I just know that it is so." He affected the hopeless tone of voice he'd heard from criminals who'd inhabited this cell in the past.  
"My name is Goten," the boy said after a long pause for thought. "If you have been wronged by the people who even now eat well and sleep soundly above our heads, then you're no enemy of mine. They call us 'Son'.. " seeing the reference was lost, Goten continued. "'Son', the 'Sons'.. the 'Sons of Goku'?"  
Those terms were slightly more familiar to Trunks, who knew as every royal family member did in these parts how the great bandit leader Goku had been, in his own mind at least, wronged by the rule of Vegeta's family, and had become embittered. He stole and his men killed people, and tried to set fire to the capital city and burn it to the ground.  
"Son Goten?" Trunks inquired in an affected mild tone of voice, adding, "They say bad things of your family. How your father killed and stole..."  
"Lies!" Goten insisted, and crawled forward in the darkened cell to be in sight of his 'fellow prisoner.' "My father was a great man. King Vegeta was a corrupt old man, who stole the homes and the food from the tables and the clothes from the backs of many of his own people and sent them into the streets without a second thought!" Dark eyes glinted in the roundish face that regarded him. His hair was longish and rather messy, and his rounded face gave the appearance of a young boy, but the hunger he'd no doubt experienced brought a lean quality to his face, bringing his appearance up to the age he was.  
_Just a blasted fanatic,_ Trunks told himself. _Why did I bother with this?_ He turned slightly, prepared to signal the guard to pull him away, but was interrupted by Goten.  
"There's a place, you know, for people like you!"  
"Nani?" the Prince asked, perplexed. _Is he going to tell me the location of his hideout?_  
"I would take you there, but we seem to be stuck." Goten sat back on the straw with a rustle, and made an amused gesture at the bars. "My father's men, as you put it, their families all live together even still, and we all come together to form a big family. We work hard to make our living, but the people of this kingdom are under orders not to deal with us, and so as it gets colder we are forced to steal what we need as you yourself do."  
_Uh oh..._  
"They speak ill of us, but they have no idea!" Goten's face gathered a frustrated look. "If they could see our people they would know we bear them no bad wishes. I got here tonight because I was stupid, I have my moments and I know it. My brother told me if I got caught he would not take responsibility for me, but here I am anyway!" He threw his arms wide and smiled a rather charming smile at Trunks.  
"So you are," he acknowledged, dropping his hand in curiosity. "What do you plan to do now?" He inquired.  
Goten's face grew crafty. "Wait." Trunks didn't know what to say to that, so he let it go.  
"A question, if you will... you must know as well as anyone that the king is dead and his son is preparing to rise to power," Trunks began, phrasing it carefully. "And yet you continue to retaliate instead of making an effort to gain his attention to your position?" Trunks' words seemed to stop Goten for a moment, and he jammed his chin onto his fist in thought.  
"Well, first off, does this spoiled prince's baby..." Goten sniffed slightly, and Trunks took it to be a slang insult. "Even have a clue we exist? I somehow doubt it, and my brother, who is in charge of such things..." and with this he waved a hand as thought it didn't matter overmuch to him, "Had the idea to make him aware. He grew up in the wilderness as I did, and this is the only way we know, and we would not be accepted if we made the effort to communicate in any case. No one was injured, as my group has not killed people of this kingdom even for our lives in a score of years."  
Goten seemed to be well-versed on the history of his little band, but then again, Trunks mused, it was only appropriate; his brother's position within the band seemed likened unto Trunks' position in the kingdom, which meant that Goten was comparable to Bra-hime. Despite himself he was intrigued by this group of people who lived in the wilderness untouched by the city._  
What freedom there must be to be had there!_ Trunks' mind said in excitement, but his common sense laughed it off.  
"What is your name, stranger, you who seem to already belong to us?"  
"How does that thought come by you? Till now I have barely heard of you."  
"It's in your voice. Sometimes you just _know_." Goten shrugged slightly and reached down for a piece of straw to twist between his fingers. "I can hear the cry for liberty that your mind must be giving even now. Believe me, I appreciate my liberty, although it would be a nice change to be cared for..." he trailed off at this, his tone dreamlike, and Trunks was forced to stop and consider him yet again.  
_He doesn't play the fanatic. It is rumored that charisma and early senility run in that family... charisma to make others come out there with them._ The Prince paused a long time.  
"Trunks," he said at last.  
"Mm? Ah, well met, Trunks, then! And how would you like to see a place where you might walk into anyone's tent and be fed like a brother?" Goten's eyes twinkled, like free food was the gift of the gods. Perhaps it was.  
"Such a place sounds intriguing..." Trunks admitted. _This could be a major coup for me, at the start of my reign as well. After all, these people must be crazy!_  
"Then you'll come see it?" Goten's face reflected excitement, and Trunks paused at that expression.  
"Well.."  
"All you have to do," Goten began, but was interrupted by a rhythmic tapping at the window-bars. "..Is wait," he finished with a grin to answer Trunks' dubious look.  
All of a sudden there was a small whoosh of air, and the guard across the room fell to the ground unconscious.  
"Goten! Where are you, you no-count cur?" A male voice hissed roughly out the window. Trunks' eyebrows rose. _I really must remember to say something about that..._  
"Here! What took you so damn long?" Goten is up and scuffling quickly across the straw before Trunks can say anything. He could swear Goten climbed the wall in his enthusiasm. "Need some help with the jailbreak?"  
"Nah, we got it." There is a strange smell in the air, and a sizzle. It seems as though the bars _melt _away, leaving a space about big enough for Goten, _and me if I held my breath,_ to push through. Goten blew on the area of the stone window frame that smoked slightly, and waved at it with his hand.  
"Should be okay now," one of the 'rescuers' murmured.  
"C'mon Goten, your sister will be worried sick, not to mention Gohan."  
"Hai, I'm coming." Goten scrabbles up and out the window without another word, but he can be heard him saying, "Matte!"  
His face came back through the window. "You never said if you'd go with us," Goten said.  
Trunks clutched his cloak close about himself in shock, and Goten reached through a hand. "Please? If you don't want to stay there it's alright, demo..."  
_"There's a place, you know, for people like you!"_  
Before Trunks knew what he was doing, he was accepting Goten's hand and being pulled through the rough stone frame by a grip on both hands. He was loaded up onto a horse as one of Goten's companions inquired.  
"Call it a charity case," Goten said with good humor. "We ready?" He receive an affirmative and climbed onto the horse in front of Trunks, as there was no spare in the group.  
"You'll see, you'll never forget this place as long as you live!" Goten promised him with a grin tossed over his shoulders.  
_And just how did I get to be friends with bandits?_ Trunks asked himself, but he found himself wanting to go along with that look in Goten's eyes, a compelling, innocently honest look. _What the hell._

Goten took the reins in his hands tightly as he spurred the horse forward suddenly, and his new friend was forced to grab onto his waist quickly or be lost. Goten readjusted himself on the horse to accommodate balance and space, and they took off, in the direction of the gates. No one was out, having heard stories of giant raiding bands who were approaching the city.  
_Fools. Baka na, minna._ Goten cursed them silently as he rode with the grip cinching tighter to his waist the faster they went. _But if there are still people like us even here, in the city, then everything's going to be okay!_  
Goten's good humor spurred him on until he was receiving hisses from his companions. "Idiot! You wanna be caught, all of us this time?"  
Goten chuckled as he slowed his horse near the gates. "Gomen, Osamu." His friend pulled the dark roan he rode to a stop, and all three checked the surrounding area for guards at the gates, which had been left open for no particular reason, probably heavily under guard. _Incompetents..._  
Trunks was still behind Goten, looking at him with large eyes that were of indeterminate color in the darkness, reflecting what dim torchlight there lay about. He seemed particularly shell-shocked._ Guess he's never ridden with bandits,_ Goten mused.  
A scent came to Goten just then, and he sniffed the air heavily, curious as to what that whiff had been, and if it foretold of any danger to them. It was sweet like flowers, so Goten dismissed it. Unless a group of rose-wielding demons was approaching they were home free.  
They left the gate as quickly as they dared, riding hard across the flat lands in a wide circle, the moonlight illuminating most dangers. As the edge of the forest loomed near, Osamu stopped the group and pulled a makeshift torch from his saddlebag, lighting it, and bringing it near Goten.  
"I didn't think you would be stupid enough to go to the castle, otomodachi," the fair-haired young man said to Goten with a slight grin, "But it seems you've picked up a prize."  
The other's horse approached as the rider peered at Trunks in the dim light of the torch. "What'dya do, kidnap a noble?"  
Goten laughed, the sound a little deeper than any he'd made in the cell; more at ease with himself on his home turf, Trunks supposed. "Joudan desu ka, Touya? I found a street rat with a familiar story."  
"That one there's a noble," the one called Touya insisted with his chin thrusting in Trunks' direction, "If I have any say. But against you I never do, Goten-kun, so as you say, he's a friend."  
Trunks gave his best benign gaze to Touya, with a smile and the words, "Noble. Such a compliment."  
Touya laughed and reared his horse around to point toward the forest, as Goten murmured to Trunks, "Not among us."  
"Oh. Then curse ye for a knave, I think I'm offended!" Trunks insisted, and Touya glanced over his shoulder at him with a disdainful expression and a flick of his longish forest-black hair.  
Goten seemed amused, and guided his horse behind Touya's who followed Osamu into the forest, as the one with wheat-colored hair held the light high. _He really knows nothing about us? Odd person..._  
They picked their way over rocky paths at first, carefully guiding their horses through places it seemed no horse should fit. But after a while, after a certain deepness into the forest, the paths were well-used, and the horses broke into an energy-conserving gallop. Even Trunks could tell that these three knew these paths like the hairs on their heads.  
The dark forest colors flew fast and furious past them as the horses grew faster and faster for the joy of running, and Trunks was about to nod off on Goten's shoulder when he glimpsed light up ahead._ So deep in the forest! They would see guards coming a mile away..._ "Can that be-?"  
"Yeah," Goten said quietly. "That's it."

Goten was indeed a different person in a place familiar, Trunks mused. He reminded him of a friend and falconing partner the Prince had had long ago, who had died of the fever. Trunks knew the others were suspicious of him, and that Touya person was right about his origins. Apparently they both trusted Goten even when it came to an issue of their most hated enemies.  
Did that say something for Goten, or them?  
Goten's feet made little sound as they hit the ground, and he held the horse steady by its bridle as Trunks swung his leg over and moved off. He approached the circle of firelight cautiously, and as someone called out the names in near whispers; "Goten- Touya- Osamu!" People streamed from their tents into the firelight.  
"Look, it's our little prince!" A short man yelled as he came to them.  
Trunks started and looked down, but Goten only chuckled. "Krillen-san, I wish you wouldn't call me that."  
"And a stupid little prince you are, too."  
"I have my moments," Goten said with a shrug, as he moved toward the firelight, with Trunks trailing behind looking around. It was nearly an entire civilization of its own; there were skin tents around, all meticulously cared for, usually with some markings, although there were those with no markings at all. There were in fact many people-certainly more than Trunks had expected to be there. They came in nearly all ages except the very old, as Goku's time had really not been so long ago.  
"And how is your daughter, Krillen-san, and how your wife?"  
"Are you taking an interest in my daughter, Goten-kun?"  
"Only that Marron-chan and I played together as children, and I have hardly seen her for a moon."  
"They are well. You know, you're not such a stupid boy, just foolhardy. And your brother wishes to see you. You had better pray Lady Videl is there and in a good mood, my friend." With that the small man moved away and brought Goten a bowl of some kind of stew, and at a moment's glance, took in Trunks.  
"And you made a friend?" Many gazes at once swept over Trunks, leaving him feeling exposed and self-conscious.  
"Hai, you'll feed him?" Goten inquired gracelessly through a full mouth.  
A slender woman with blond hair and rather cold blue eyes brought Trunks a bowl as he sat uncertainly by Goten. Trunks thanked her in a quiet murmur and pulled back his hood. As he did so there was the sound of feminine laughter and whispers. Trunks paused and saw all eyes on him, and looked around uncertainly.  
"And a pretty face you've brought, too!" One of the women cried aloud and some of them made a few rough jokes. "Are you sure of the gender?"  
"Surely there can't be men who look so," one dark-haired woman said, and Trunks paused with the bowl in his lap, and the woman who had served him, seemingly the only one who took no notice of his polished looks, thrust a pair of chopsticks into his hand.  
"Eat, this bounty will not be wasted." Her voice was rather deep and inflectionless, but she seemed decent enough.  
"Yeah," Goten said loudly. "We all know I'm the hunk around here!"  
"Hunk of young meat," someone murmured, which Trunks took to mean an unproven young man. He shrugged it and the continued looks aside as he realized he was hungry. He raised something that looked suspiciously like meat to his mouth, and chewed it slowly. It was much more coarse than he was accustomed to, naturally, but it really wasn't bad.  
"The cook is to be commended," Trunks murmured, then mimicked Goten in hunger.  
The blond woman acknowledged his words with a slight bow, and walked back to dole out other portions to the people around. Trunks was surprised to find his bowl eventually empty, and Goten was already patting his stomach with a big goofy smile. "If I wasn't used to so little, I would eat all that's in that pot!"  
"And have your ass kicked by us," Touya said as he passed for seconds.  
"I need to go to my brother. Trunks, you should meet him as well."  
Trunks blinked in the firelight, and nodded after a moment, feigning a chill from the wind as he pulled his hood over his head. He followed Goten to a nondescript tent with no few markings. Some tents, the Prince noticed, had lots of colorful designs and pictures, some had none, and a few had a little writing. But the marked tents also had the writing, from what he could see by torch and firelight.  
He followed Goten inside with a second's hesitation, dipping his head below the tent flap.  
"O-nii-chan, I've returned," Goten began blandly.  
"So you have. I'm a little surprised, but with you I shouldn't be." This man looked like Goten very much in features, and he laid aside an empty bowl at the side of the fire and brought his hands together into his lap. "And what did you accomplish?"  
Goten actually snickered. "They put me in a cell... think maybe they noticed me?"  
"That is not the kind of attention we want," This one said. "Goten, we want them to know we don't intend to harm them, and you- what did you do?"  
"I threw rocks at the castle," Goten said matter-of-factly.  
"You threw rocks at the castle," his brother said. "Son Goten-!"  
"Goten?" came a voice, and the tent flap moved aside, as the woman who belonged to the voice came into the tent, standing upright to reveal herself round and very pregnant.  
"Sister-in-law," Goten greeted. "Looking every inch the mother this night. Are you well?"  
"No, I'm worried sick about you. How could you go off and be an idiot like that?" She whapped him soundly on the arm and Goten finally had the good grace to be abashed. "Gomen nasai," he said in a cute tone. "You mad?"  
"Not when you grin like that," she said. "And you've brought a stranger into my home without informing me? Your mother would die if she saw your manners going down the drain like this."  
"Well, she's dead now, so it all evens out." He received an indifferent look from his sister-in-law and a glare from his brother. "This is Trunks. We were cellmates!" Goten's tone was overly enthusiastic, so Trunks assumed he was joking. "This is my brother, Gohan, and his wife Videl." Goten seemed to think of something. "Gomen sister, I would have brought you some nice straw for fuel if my head had been screwed on straight."  
"Well," she replied mildly enough, "We don't want you stealing any more than necessary; stealing is wrong. It's only sad that our next generation will have that edict dulled in their education."  
"Not ours," Gohan said seriously enough, but all looked at him when they noticed his distracted tone. "What smells sweet?"  
Goten glanced at Trunks, who offered him a blank look, and then shrugged at his brother but cast his eyes away.  
"If my brother trusts you.. Trunks," Gohan began, "Then I suppose I shall as well. He has ways with people."  
"No," Goten was saying to Videl, "It was from the floor of the cell."  
"Then it was dirty, and I do not want it. But I will forgive your forgetfulness if you help me gather fuel tomorrow, as I cannot bend with this one growing." Videl did sound tired, and she stacked some wood against the side of the tent, as her husband told her gently, "Videl-chan, you didn't have to do that, I said I would."  
"And what must I do all day, manage raids?" Videl inquired.  
"I _already _had agreed to help you with fuel," Goten said.  
"Have you a place to sleep?" Gohan inquired of Trunks, who had Goten answer for him in the affirmative. "Then you should go there, and the camp should go down for the night as well, in case the castle comes searching for its lost noble."  
"I am no noble," Trunks answered, squaring his shoulders and lying as well as he could to Gohan. This man would not be fooled easily. His eyes narrowed on Trunks'.  
"I see this one you've found is a fascinating case," Gohan murmured to his brother. To Trunks he said, "Just making sure."  
"I started a fire in your tent, Goten-kun." Videl had taken up some type of needlework and only paused long enough to say this, to which Goten scolded that she shouldn't have. "Iie, I heard you had a guest."  
"Small camp," Gohan said with a smile as the two turned to leave the tent. "Oyasumi nasai."  
Goten brought Trunks to sleep in his own tent, laying out bedding for him. "Wakarimasen; maybe it's fate."  
"Nani?" Trunks inquired. "_What's_ fate?"  
"Being at the castle tonight. Maybe you were meant to join us!" Goten's enthusiasm seemed to have no effect on Trunks, so he paused. "You don't like it here?"  
For the sake of Goten, this young man with the puppy face whom he had known for an hour, maybe two at the most, Trunks was compelled to say, "It is indeed a wonder to behold," whether he would or not. _Would I?_  
"Well then," Goten said after a moment, "Go to sleep. You have lots to learn in the morning. I have things I must do; as you might say, I help my brother..."  
"The 'little prince'?" Trunks inquired.  
"Well, my father was in charge here, and so Gohan became the head when he died. He's not really suited for this, but I'm too foolish, they all say," Goten admitted with a sheepish smile. "So go to Lady Videl whenever it is you wake and help her tomorrow, okay? The men are supposed to go chop trees for the communal fire's fuel, and we always replant so that there will be a forest here to shield us. We had planned replant tomorrow, so we'll be out until late in the day, and Lady Videl grows heavier with child each day."  
"She's accorded a lot of respect here, isn't she?"  
"Aside from the family she married into, she is quick and strong and intelligent, and is always ready to work hard uncomplaining. She has earned a great deal of respect here." Goten shrugged and kicked off his boots as he pulled his covers around him. Trunks lay back on his bed and pulled the warm fur around him and scooted a little closer to the fire, sighing slightly as he dropped off to sleep almost immediately.  
After a long, long time Goten eased his coverings from around him and pulled a dipperful of water from the bucket across the room, taking a drink as he eyed his new houseguest over the rim of the dipper_. What is his story, that he hasn't yet said?_  
Goten moved onto his bed again and stared at the other occupant of his tent. He had seen earlier, bright blue eyes and pale hair of an uncommon sort in the dim light. In the sun all would be revealed, but Goten knew as well as any that those like him were not commonly found in these parts, with fine pale skin; it all seemed to deny his story of low roots.  
After a moment of thinking he moved stealthily over his blanket and across the tent until he was on his knees by Trunks' bedside, and leaned down close to his face. He was fair as the women had commented, but that could be fluke. Goten inhaled sharply. That scent of sweetness he had noticed while on his horse earlier.. it clung to him. No poor person could afford the expensive scented soaps that he had apparently used. _Who are you really?  
_Trunks stirred in his sleep as though aware of the scrutiny.  
_I'll tell you this, though, stranger..._ Goten thought as he tried to search his memory for what exactly about this young man had made him inclined to trust him. _If you betray us I'll put a sword through your gut._

Trunks woke to sunlight that streamed through the open tent flap. A face appeared after a moment, a half-familiar voice inquiring if he woke.  
_Where...? Ah,_ he began to recall as Videl's silhouette solidified into a shape he could identify as he sat up rubbing his eyes.  
"I heard you were assigned to me."  
"Aye, and so I was. Son-kun seems to worry greatly over you."  
Videl paused. "Don't say Son-kun. Goten-kun. There are three Sons here and nothing to distinguish them but attitude. And in my case gender."  
"Gomen ne," Trunks told her around a yawn. "Goten-kun speaks as if you were his sister and not his sister-in-law."  
"I am, for all intents and purposes; did he neglect to tell you how close-knit everyone here is?" Videl shook her head just as suddenly as though it didn't matter. "The men have left. Your breakfast is getting cold; come before it is time for us to head out as well."  
"Where do we go?" Trunks asked, following Videl obediantly.  
"Today we go to the river and wash clothes. As many women then decide to take baths you may leave, but I would ask a favor of you." Videl hardly glanced at him as she served him.  
"What might that be, Lady?" Trunks asked politely enough as he began to eat.  
"Fuel for my fire. Goten is strong and they needed him, so if you could find any small dry twigs, straw; you know what makes fire." She moved some of the dishes aside to be cleaned by younger girls while they were gone.  
"With all due respect Lady Videl, that is not a favor, that is a task, and I expected such when I agreed to help you today." Trunks quickly shoveled food in as Videl paused and smiled at him.  
"So you have a silver tongue, have you?" She moved off with a smile, and Trunks figured he must have said something right. _Probably just that a little fuel is nothing._ He shrugged and moved to her, taking the heavier one of the two baskets she carried from her hands and balancing it on a shoulder as he followed her and a host of other young women.  
"Lady Videl, you bring men?"  
"He will leave," she replied.  
One of the dark-haired women from last night interrupted, "I don't mind if he stays, not one bit!"  
Someone called her a cheap whore. She merely shrugged. _A different culture indeed!_ Trunks thought to himself; many of their own terms probably made little sense to them after three generations of living in the forest. He couldn't imagine it.  
"Tell us your story, fair one," a young woman asked of him eagerly, and Trunks started to panic just a bit.  
"Mara, that is rude." Videl seemed unconcerned as she said it, and set her basket on a rock as Trunks set the other one to join it. "Go and do as I have asked of you now," Videl told him, "and return when the sun is directly overhead, for then I will have need of you." Trunks nodded, and went away, musing to himself as he began to do as Goten's sister had asked. He had left his cloak in the tent when he saw the bright sunlight, and was now wishing he could leave his clothes totally behind as the morning became warm and a little uncomfortable. He gathered some long grasses as his sister had once shown him and braided them together, then gathered small twigs and dry grass and plants and small tinder and kindling and wrapped them in the grass rope, waiting until he had large bundles to go back to the camp and deposit them in her tent. He did this until the sun was overhead, at which time he found himself back at the river.  
Videl gestured to him to help carry one of her baskets as he had done before and he did so, listening to the women talk around him. Many of them kept flirting with him, and made him highly uncomfortable. He was not used to such treatment, although Bra would come to him and say "such and such a lady thinks you're handsome,"; but it was unseemly for a princess to flirt so. He ended up laughing a lot and trying to be nice and not lead any of them on at the same time, but it grew more and more difficult.  
"Enough!" A woman cried. "Will I hear no peace from you flock of hens?" Trunks recognized the woman from the night before. All at least glanced at her, but they quieted.  
"Calm yourself, Juuhachigou-san," Videl said after a moment, in a polite voice. "They are excited over the fresh meat, let them be."  
Trunks gulped slightly, and turned to Videl. "I don't want to be the next kill!"  
There was laughter from all sides, and they all contined to the camp in good humor. Videl took her clothes into the tent as Trunks stood outside and wiped his brow. He had never actually had to be the one to do the work of gathering fuel except if he were on a trip somewhere before.  
"Trunks-kun," Videl asked in a curious voice as she walked back out with a hand pressed to the small of her back. "Did all that fuel come from your efforts?"  
"Ma'am?" Trunks asked in confusion. The more he spoke to Videl, the greater his urge to be respectful, as though he talked to his own mother, and her being Queen Mother. "All that in there?"  
She nodded and he said, "Hai. Do you need more?"  
Videl gave him a curious look and called over another woman, nearly as pregnant as she was. "Makoto-chan, I know it's been difficult for you getting fire stuffs, what with your impending birth and your bad back. Take some of ours, it seems our overzealous newcomer has fueled us out of house and home." Videl brought a bundle Trunks had made to her, and she bowed gratefully to Videl and Trunks both before taking it to her tent.  
"Gomen nasai," the Prince began, but Videl cut him off.  
"Never apologize for doing your task," Videl said. "Until the men get here. Then you can tell them you're sorry for being better than they are." She laughed at his expression and went to get them lunch. Trunks settled down outside the tent for this meal across from Videl and they talked of universal things, as Trunks observed the comings and goings.  
_Is it really so easy to fit in here? This thing of working to live isn't so hard._

Gohan blinked slightly as he came home and found a pile of dry grasses outside the tent, and inside the newcomer, Trunks, sitting with his hands up and about half a foot apart, having Videl's threads or wools or some such thing wrapped around them time and again in her efforts to organize the sewing.  
"How did it go today, Gohan?" Videl asked idly, and Trunks turned his head upward to swing between them as they engaged in conversation.  
"Very well. And you seem to have had a productive day today, Videl. Has this one helped you very much?" Gohan glanced curiously at Trunks, who merely blinked.  
"Aye, and if I would I would keep him forever."  
Gohan made a face. "You do me an injustice, wife."  
"This one is fair and useful, and cute for sheer naivete. You are old, Gohan."  
"Your song will change once this one is old too."  
Trunks had quickly fallen into the rhythms of their odd dialect of the language of which he was familiar. It was perfectly understandable at any rate, but the way they said things had a rather roundabout feel, as things were generally direct sounding, when directly spoken, in the courts where he'd grown up. And there, if things weren't directly spoken, the tone was usually clear enough. He mused on this as he watched Videl's face, serene as it had still been when the two of them sat in silence, her quickness of eye not lost as she conversed with her husband.  
"... and if you had your mushy head screwed on straight you'd wake up and notice that you're the one I married, so you can take your jealousy and stuff it into the nearest knothole, for all I care." Her endless winding of threads completed, Videl sat back and took them from Trunks' outstretched hands. He lowered his arms, feeling them ache from holding still so long.  
"Not used to such work, are you?" Videl's sharp eye noticed as he stretched his arms to restore the normal feeling.  
"Nay, I am used to stealing for food." Trunks was quick to reply. Gohan glanced at him in curiosity once again, but Videl's eyes narrowed as she laughed, saying only "I see. And a pretty way you say it."  
"If you'll excuse me, Lady Videl, I'd like to take a walk."  
"I don't anticipate needing you around... now that my big strong husband is home," she murmured with laughter and a glance at Gohan. He only frowned.  
Trunks approached the fire that had been lit by the women before the men had arrived home. He stretched out his hands, palms toward the flames. The night was chilly, colder than any he could recall since he had spent so few outdoors. All of a sudden, Trunks noticed a bright red ribbon flutter to the ground in front of him. There were no running steps to retrieve it, so he stooped over and picked it up, holding it between his fingers with a noise of brief wonder.  
"Kind sir! If you might, my ribbon?" A girl stood before him, still in her teens as he was, yet younger and filled with smiling good cheer. She had blond hair, one side of which was down, and dark eyes that reflected the firelight even in the late afternoon.  
"Yes, of course," Trunks said as he reached out to hand it to her. Between blinks it was snatched from his hand.  
Goten stood there with the ribbon in one drawn-back fist, glaring. Trunks wondered what he had done wrong, but he soon realized the glare was directed at the girl. "Shame on you, Marron, taking advantage of someone who knows not the power of feminine wiles!"  
Marron looked at him with suddenly big wide eyes that turned to Trunks. "I didn't know he was _that_ kind of person," she said, and Trunks felt far distant from 'the loop.'  
"More shame to your house!" Goten insisted. "You can't tell he knows nothing of women just by watching him? And he doesn't know as I do the full extent of your wickedness!"  
She stuck her tongue at him and the two engaged in a brief contest of making faces, during which Trunks became disinterested and wandered away. "Gimme my ribbon!"  
"No more of your shameless flirting!" Goten insisted and had the ribbon snatched from his open palm as he turned to find Trunks warming his hands at an abandoned section of fire a rew paces away. Goten pulled off a pair of thick work gloves and warmed his hands as well in silence, next to Trunks, resisting the urge to ask him questions.  
After a while, Trunks happened to glance at Goten's tensely silent face and smiled. "You know, I always, when I was younger, wanted to come out here to the woods and live at the base of the mountains. No, I wanted to live at the mountain's peak and from there touch the stars at night."  
Goten paused and looked at him as though considering. It was a matter of due course that Goten would have the more practical mind; "And once you had such a star, what wouldst thou do with it?" Trunks had noticed that here people spoke formally when confused or upset.  
"One does not possess a star, friend Goten." He laughed to himself for a moment.  
"What makes you say that?" At Trunks' bemused look, Goten continued, with a darkened face, "If one could touch the stars one would want to possess them."  
He seemed to mull over that for a moment. "Then I suppose it's for the best that a man can't touch the stars. Things such as they should not be marred by clumsy hands, at any rate." Trunks was willing to let it go with his last words.  
"From the mountaintop, you believe you can touch the stars?" Goten's tone was less mocking now.  
"When I was a small child, I always at least wanted to try." Trunks smiled distantly at the fire.  
"Why didn't you?"  
Trunks shrugged, diffident. "Life got in the way."  
"Why don't you?"  
"Hmm?"  
"Go now. No one's stopping you. Go touch your stars." Goten thrust his hands back into his gloves and rubbed them together a bit as a silent cold wind came directly at them, and Trunks blinked at him.  
"Fantasies are fantasy, and that's what that was. For what purpose would I go to the mountaintop?"  
Goten shrugged and turned, walking away. Trunks looked after him, wondering if the outright denial had upset him.  
After about ten minutes or so of Trunks watching the men and women around him and wondering what he'd done wrong, Goten came back to him. "We're going to your mountain."  
"Nani?!"  
"There are things the women need, some types of herbs that only grow high. And we can eat meat, and bring back the furs and maybe even some food if we're careful, and all the food we can carry is needed here. My brother approves."  
Trunks' eyebrows shot up towards his scalp. "Gohan-san... actually agreed to that?"  
"I think the idea of having me out of his hair is appealing." Goten actually laughed, and went to his tent then to think about what to take. Trunks was left by the fireside, bewildered.


	2. Chapter 2

The Best of Both Worlds, part 2  
By: Chocolate-chan

Goten shook Trunks awake in the morning and ignored his groanings and protestations for more sleep, dousing the fire to prevent the other becoming drowsy from the near warmth again.  
"Wherewe goin'?" Trunks muttered, pulling himself up from his messed covers and shaking his bowl-cut hair into place. After a bit of blinking the fuzzy lines of the tent and Goten cleared and smoothed into steady images to his eyes. Trunks rubbed his eyes and pulled his boots on yawning. He glanced out the tentflap when Goten thrust it open and stomped into his boots as he clambered out.  
"Holy saints, it's still dark!" the Prince pulled his cloak up tightly around his neck, shivering as he climbed out of the tent to stand by the entrance in consternation.  
"Of course," Goten said with a pause out in his direction. "We have to reach a tenable position by nightfall, for it grows exceptionally cold then on the mountain."  
"Oh yeah, I guess..." Trunks said, taking a little of the dried meat that Goten handed him. "Where'd you get this?" Trunks asked, not having seen him pull it out.  
"My sister. Whenever I eat I worry about her, y'know? Food grows scarce this season of the year, and without food when time comes to give birth she'll die. I don't know if the thought has even occurred to Gohan, but even if it hasn't he has enough on his platter." Goten looked away with a shrug. He pulled some more foodstuffs into his bag and handed another bag of such to Trunks, and grinned. "Well, let's go, shall we?"  
"Uhn." Trunks muttered around the piece of meat he was gnawing at, and set off after Goten up into the foothills. At first it was mild, up one hill and down another, but they soon reached the great unmoveable mass of the mountain, and set up the increasing slope climbing over bare rocks. Trunks' hands, without gloves that any would spare, were quickly frozen stiff. Goten offered to share his gloves and the two took turns. They were handmade, and Trunks could see Videl's stitching. Trunks was in good shape, being the prince and all, from fencing and horseback riding from the time he was a small boy, but he had nothing to compete with Goten's boundless energy and goat-like footing on the bare rocks.  
At midday they stopped and had bread and more of the meat, and water that they carried with them. Trunks looked around, feeling the thin air enter his lungs, feeling slightly lightheaded. Goten took deep gasps of air and grinned into the chilly wind. Trunks wondered what thoughts were in his head, but found himself examining the other's face more closely than anything.  
What had brought Goten to bring them out here? Simply because Trunks had expressed a childhood dream, Goten had actually gone to the effort of making it come true.  
"Oi, Goten-kun?"  
"Yeah?" Goten called back without turning his head.  
Trunks huffed for breath for a moment, then asked, "So why are we _really_ here?"  
Goten shrugged, being careful not to dislodge the rocks in his grip. "I thought it sounded like fun."  
Trunks thought about that, watching Goten's handholds in the rocks with careful eyes. Their slope evened out slightly, and they were able to climb upwards on foot rather than with hands. Trunks pondered his face with sideways glances.  
_Far from how I expected a fanatic to behave._ Was the first thought that came to him, before the rest of his mind examined it and asked his consciousness if it really mattered. _Well, no, but... there's just some things you know about people by sensing._ Would someone who was not to be trusted by the people Trunks was close to swearing himself into rule over, be kind enough to rescue a stray and open his home, reveal his secret, share food and shelter?  
Trunks added it to the pile of new thoughts he was building, one pebble after another building a stone castle of contemplation in his mind. _And I'm supposed to marry that thrice-damned princess..._  
For a long, long moment, Trunks envied Goten his nearly complete freedom of movement and condition. After a moment, a sharp rock cut into his palm, and Trunks winced as he pulled himself up over a divide in the rock, and regained his footing to trail after Goten. He realized that at this moment, he was living, and not simply _being,_ as he had all his life previously. Right now there was no one around to tell him what and when, and he existed under the same freedom of thought and condition that Goten did. _Thanks for giving me the chance..._ Trunks thought in his direction.  
Goten sneezed.  
Trunks laughed silently to himself as Goten began to swear. "It's too damn cold up here! Well? Are you happy on your twice-damned mountain?"  
"I'm very happy," Trunks said, sincerely. "I really like it up here."  
Goten appeared to lose his steam, but hadn't any in the first place. "Well... good." They continued on in silence for a while longer after Trunks had finished laughing aloud to himself. There was the one thing that was still similar about their speech; invectives remained common. _My sister says 'twice-damned...'_  
All of a sudden Trunks missed his sister dearly, and wished there was a way to retain this freedom, even share it with her. Bra would be delighted; come and play with a group of nice people and never be forced to marry if she so chose.  
"Do you have any siblings besides Gohan-san?" Trunks asked suddenly to Goten, and Goten shook his head with a smile. "Just Videl-san." Trunks told the young man about his sister in brief, and Goten ended up chuckling a bit. "She sounds like a delight. Whatever happened to her?"  
Trunks assumed that Goten meant he would not have been stupid enough to be in prison if he had a little sister to care for. "I don't know," he replied honestly enough. "I wish I knew if she was okay right now, and.. happy." He doubted that, as he was often told stories of her ill-humor when her "Nii-chan" was away.  
"What brought her up?"  
"She would enjoy the view," Trunks said mildly as they rounded a bend and were presented with a lovely vista indeed. "Sometimes I wish I were an artist, so that I could preserve scenes like this forever."  
"Can't help you there," Goten said with a chuckle. "I can't even draw stick people in the dirt."  
"My sister ruined two dresses trying to learn to paint. Mother was irritated."  
Goten made a horrified sound. "Two? What did she wear?"  
Trunks hadn't the heart to tell him that his sister owned dozens of good dresses, even if he had been inclined to break his lie. Instead he answered with a shrug as he thought of the lifestyle of these he was among now. He had seen some wearing skins or furs, but was unsure how they got good cotton, much less things like Videl's fine iron sewing needle. So he asked.  
"Oh," Goten replied easily, "The people of the town have been brainwashed against us, but there are actually bandit gangs in the forest, and they steal whatever they want, and we often trade with them. Then there's those that try to kill us and take things." Goten shrugged as one accustomed to this, and Trunks mulled over it in his mind.  
"Ah, well I just figured you stole that kind of stuff."  
From the offended look Goten gave him, Trunks could tell he'd said something wrong. "You've got us all wrong, don't you?"  
"Uh?" Trunks tried, but no intelligible sound emerged.  
"See, no offense to you or how you lived before or anything, but our parents taught us that stealing was wrong. But as the peace overtures to the people of the city were turned down flat for nearly two generations, Gohan was forced to acknowledge that we had to steal to survive, so every time he made some effort to communicate afterwards, he included that fact in his writings. I think it may have been taken as a threat, because the response was more brutally negative each time."  
"My father was a stubborn man who never forgot a grievance done to him, real or imagined," Trunks mused.  
"What has your father to do with this?" Goten asked.  
"Ah, he was so like royalty in his bearing, I always thought of the king in comparison to him, so it kind of fits my expectations." Trunks was successful in delivering the line with nearly no trace of being startled.  
"There was one here of a family other than the original ones, and he was cruel to the girls and arrogant with the men. He died of fever. But when I think of the royal family, I think of this one who tormented me thus." Goten's face was tugged with a frown, and Trunks wondered if he were becoming upset. "You need the gloves?" He offered suddenly, and Trunks nodded.  
As Trunks pulled on the gloves, Goten continued with his narrative. "All of the original families that were here believed that we should try to find some other method than stealing, but they had no idea what it was to be in my brother's position; when they insisted we farm, he must know that the soldiers would come and kill us and burn our fields and the forest any time they pleased. And when they said we should leave, he knew there was nowhere that we would be accepted because of our association with my father."  
"How would people know?" the Prince asked, curious at the reasoning behind this one. "Even the royal children who pass on the tales know nothing of the people involved beyond Goku."  
"My brother was afraid for them anyway," Goten said after agreeing. "But the deeper reason for that was Videl and I, of course, and many of the more influential families, like that of Krillen-san, would not leave us. Some became angry, and they left to form other groups that died out, were captured, or even one or two that exist today."  
"Very complicated," was all Trunks could say.  
"I get _angry_ when I remember it because of that royal family, be they twice cursed and twice damned again. Because the king forced innocent people on the street, when they moved away to lick their wounds he shut the doors in their faces. What did he even want with all of their poor properties anyway? He's dead now; I don't guess we'll ever find out."  
"Why didn't you wait? Until after the upcoming coronation, I mean. Try communicating with the new king." Trunks had found it hard the first time to keep a straight face, but now he was starting to believe for himself that these people meant no harm to anyone.  
"I know Gohan-nii-san will try, but I personally don't hold much hope. How can this one be different from the last, he who was raised under the thumb of the king? Does he know anything of us besides the fact that we steal food from his streets?"  
Goten sounded dispirited, and Trunks glanced at him. "Are you prejudiced against him before his reign begins?" There was no way he'd want Goten to hate him.  
"You know," Goten said, tossing his hair back from his face slightly as he hooked his thumbs under his bag's straps. "Maybe you're right. But the coronation was scheduled to happen already. What's going on? There have been a few of us in the city, since, and there is no word from the castle, despite the fact that a foreign princess arrived who will probably be the prince's bride, so they say. Isn't it more than strange?" Goten's brow furrowed, and Trunks was forced to agree, becoming uncomfortable of the conversation all of a sudden, but couldn't help but whisper to himself, "How he must long to be out of his gilded cage..."  
"How I would long to trade my spot for his gilded cage," Goten said in return.  
"Do not be too quick. Out here, you are free." Trunks warned, and Goten looked over the ridge below them in thought.  
"I never thought of his life. It's almost a thorn in the side of my family." And Trunks was silent.

Along about nightfall it began to rain, hard freezing cold drops of half-formed ice hitting them from overhead, and Trunks pulled up his cloak's hood and ran for the first likely sign of shelter, with Goten cursing as he ran behind him. Trunks slipped, and Goten stopped to help him up. Trunks cursed his heavy city-made boots and wished for a moment that his were the light, flexible kind like he'd seen Videl working on in her tent.  
Trunks pointed; Goten led them toward the side of the mountain in which a cave was securely lodged. Trunks plopped himself down in the entrance, as did Goten, to catch their breath before realizing the wind was positioned to blow into the mouth of the cave. As if by unspoken agreement they moved out to the nearest trees and tore down branches, Goten hacking at them with a thick-bladed sword of little worth, that had been lent to him for the trip.  
As they lugged them back to the cave, the drops of water seemed to harden into hail, and their way grew more dangerous to tread, but eventually they were able to block off the mouth of the cave, shaking free the branches of ice and praying for them to dry quickly so that they might start a fire.  
Trunks thought about taking off his boots so that he didn't catch cold, but figured he would freeze, so he sat as he was in the nearly pitch dark cave and shivered violently, listening to Goten cursing slightly as he searched in the dark for their bags, to find their blankets, at last throwing one to Trunks which he wrapped around himself after removing his cloak and laying it out to dry. He sat with a fold of the blanket over his head, listening to Goten's labored breathing.  
"M-mebbie the extra branches will d-dry and we can build a fire..." He could tell that Goten was as cold as he was by the way his throat muscles seized up during speech with his shivering.  
Trunks turned until his palm brushed soft needles of the branches. "Nothin' doin', these things were soaked with rain before the ice came. Better it were hail first, even with us so far from this cave..."  
After a long time Trunks noticed that Goten was shivering less and a little less again although it didn't stop, and he himself was still shaking as violently as when they had entered the cave.  
"You're still so cold as before?" Goten asked, and Trunks heard scuffing across the cave as stones shifted, as though Goten were crawling on hands and knees. "You're not used to this cold? You should be; it's cold even in the streets now, this time of year. Lay down."  
The Prince tried to think of some return comment, but came with none, and Goten's last command had to be repeated a time or two before it was recognized. Trunks moved one hand behind his back and eased himself to the floor of the cave. After a moment the movement came closer to him, and he could almost make out Goten sitting near him. Goten lowered himself to the ground as well, and pulled at Trunks' blanket. After some manuvering Goten had them both wrapped up in the blankets, though Trunks' teeth chattered enough with his own movements that he noticed nothing except a slight recession in the cold. After a long time of uncharacteristic silence from Son Goten, Trunks looked over to discover that the young bandit-boy had fallen asleep wrapped up close with his head on Trunks' shoulder.  
Trunks blinked a few times, the sight not really penetrating his brain. _If mother could see me now.._  
After a moment he felt as though his body could feel again, like a lightning bolt that strikes with no warning, and he could feel the slightly smaller young man pressed against him, wet clothes and all, and that he was warm. Trunks' mind only fixed on the sensation of warmth from him, and pulled the other closer to him to steal more of that body heat. After a moment he felt his own eyelids droop, feeling much warmer than a moment before, and was out before he knew.

Goten was unsure of how much time passed before he woke to find himself in a too-cool darkness. He opened his eyes to see Trunks' face near him, silent and still in repose, and as he moved to rise he found that the other's arms were wrapped tightly around him.  
_He's so warm... but gotta get up..._ Goten was able to pull himself out slowly without waking Trunks, and left all of the blankets they possessed between them covering him. He shook out his still slightly damp clothing and moved to the entrance to the cave.  
As he pulled the branches they had gathered back from the entrance, a fresh blast of freezing air hit him, and Goten looked out to see the mountainscape littered with melting ice chunks of an alarming size. The mid-morning sun glinted blindingly on them, and Goten sighed and went in to his bag, taking a pot and filling it with the cleanest ice chuncks he could find, and stripped the extra branches of useless materials and built a small fire in the cave, being forced to leave the branches in front of the cave mostly down so that they didn't die of smoke.  
After a while he had a nice setup with water boiling in a pot over the fire. He pulled some of the foodstuffs from his bag, tearing the dried meat into shreds and setting it to boil in the pot ahead of the rest. After a while he had a thin soup going, and the smell woke his companion, who sat up blearily saying his name.  
"I'm here," Goten said as Trunks looked first in the wrong direction. He turned himself around and came over to the fire, reaching his hands so close to the glow that Goten was afraid he'd burn himself. As the light flickered on the palms of his hands, Goten saw that they were cracked and the knuckles bruised from falling rocks, a little bloody even from the day before.  
Goten sighed and pulled some of the thin strips of cloth that Videl had pushed into his hand, while the two had shared a knowing glance at Trunks as he had packed. Goten moved around the fire after stirring the soup another time, and turned Trunks to face him, wrapping up his hands without comment from either of them.  
Unable to resist, as he finished Goten murmured "You're a pansy."  
"Am I?" Trunks replied mildly, one eye on the soup.  
"Yes, and you tell bad lies," but Trunks didn't think about that until Goten had moved from the cave. He came back later with an innocent-looking herb clutched in his hand. "See this?"  
Trunks peered at it. "What about it?"  
"Take it and get familiar with its touch, scent, even its taste.. in only small quantities, it can be dangerous if there is too much in the body. That's what we're up here for. The women use this to relieve fevers and other sorts of things I never bothered to learn completely. We need to gather as much of this as we can and dry it to preserve it, if necessary."  
"Ahh.." Trunks looked at it rather uncomprehendingly, seeming as though his brains had frozen solid in his head. Goten figured food would fix him up, and it seemed to work as he grasped at the bowl he was handed a few minutes later.  
"You're good at this," Trunks commented.  
"Cooking? No, not me."  
"In the rough, that is."  
"What rough?" Goten really seemed not to get it, so Trunks just told him, "The damn soup is good!"  
"Oh, thanks."  
_You are something else yet again,_ Goten said to himself as he watched the other young man force down the soup at an almost inhuman speed, and have to hold himself from throwing up. _Such an idiot! Practically, that is. Intellectually..._  
Goten watched him unblinking as he sat back with a hand on his stomach, and seemed to notice Goten looking at him.  
"That's what you get for eating too fast," Goten informed him. _Am I the only one who wants to believe your little fairy tales about who you are and where you come from? I feel as though I'm the only one looking for a way for them to be true, even in the slightest..._ Goten felt rather foolish when it came to his new friend, but he had known from the beginning that there was something suspicious about him and had taken him with anyway. _Will the snake bite me?  
_After taking a few moments to recover, Trunks looked down at the plant in his hand. It had roundish holly-green leaves that grew in clusters of three. Trunks felt of the leaves and sniffed heavily at it, then made a face, stuck his tongue out and licked one of the leaves.  
Goten almost fell over laughing. Trunks glared as he lay on the floor of the cave, holding his stomache and thinking of what Videl would say. After about five minutes of Trunks yelling, "What? What!?" Goten managed to pull himself together.  
"You really _don't_ know anything, do you? You're a total idiot! Hey, this'll be great for _my_ reputation!" Goten grinned until he saw the flat look on Trunks' face, and took the herb from him. He laid it on the ground, on as flat a surface as he could find, and grabbed up a loose odd-shaped rock and began to grind the plant into a crude paste.  
"I had to eat this stuff all the time when I was little. 'Cause I never did what anybody said, and I was always getting bitten and scratched, and I always played in the rain when Kaa-san told me to come in..." Goten paused and was silent for a moment, a painful look in his dark eyes. "So I'd get sick, and she or Videl would have to nearly force-feed me. Tastes nasty."  
"So why do you want me to taste it?"  
"'Cause I'm a sadist? I dunno, you just should know. Like if you aren't certain about it, grind up some of the leaves and taste it. There's a bunch of plants that look like this around. Sometimes it takes a pro to know the difference." Goten finished and dipped a finger into the sickly-colored stuff. "Okay!"  
Trunks looked at him, and then his hand. "I don't wanna eat that stuff."  
"Come on, it's not going to kill you."  
"I _don't_ want to eat that stuff."  
"You wanna go straight home?"  
Trunks actually pouted, which was an emotion Goten had never expected to be displayed in his face.  
"Come on, one little taste." Goten advanced toward him, and Trunks leaned away. Goten insisted, grabbing at his arm. Trunks scowled and pushed at him and Goten had to wrestle him into a headlock and shove his finger into the other's mouth.  
"Yuck!" Trunks spluttered, but it was too late. Most of it had been reflexively swallowed. Trunks wiped his tongue with the back of his hand, and moved away from Goten. "It's dis_gus_ting!"  
"But it didn't _hurt_ you, now did it?" Goten sat with his arms crossed and ignored his childishness.  
Trunks stopped what he was doing and glared at Goten, taking a moment to think about it. It was probably because he was more accustomed to best-quality doctors, and foods, besides. To Goten, it was nothing.  
Speaking of which... "Hey, why don't you use leeches?"  
Goten made a face. "For what?"  
Trunks paused. "Well, the town doctors use leeches when you have an illness. They bleed you and get the fever out of your blood."  
"And this _works_?" Goten looked disgusted, but fascinated despite himself.  
"Well, I dunno, I'm not a doctor."  
"Leeches carry diseases too, nitwit, especially out here. Plants can be cleaned or disinfected and don't carry diseases humans could catch anyway. Besides, leeches are dis_gus_ting!" Goten shuddered. Trunks couldn't help but smile to himself.  
"So when do we leave?"  
"Now; get your stuff together. We'll have a long climb."  
"Nan desu ka?" _Just how big _is_ this mountain?_  
"We didn't get as far as I hoped. The plants around here are too small. They grow poorly everywhere but near the top." Goten's stuff, of course, was nearly all together, and as soon as he put out the fire he was ready. He waited at the entrance to the cave, and as Trunks stood to join him Goten looked down at his own gloved hands, pulled them off and gave the gloves to Trunks. "You're weaker than I am, you need them more. If they mess up your grip give them back."  
With Trunks frowning behind him, Goten headed for the least treacherous upward slope.

After a day and a half of picking and setting out plants, the kind Goten had shown him and others he knew were useful, Trunks found himself wide awake long after the sun had gone down, probably drugged up from tasting plant paste (or so he assumed.)  
There was silence over the rocky vista, except for a gust of freezing wind that sent Trunks back to rescue his blanket. He wrapped it around himself securely, pulled a section up over the hood of his cloak and headed up. After about five minutes of walking thus he broke through a cloud bank and was stopped nearly in his tracks as the stars spread out before him.  
There were more stars up here than he'd ever imagined! Far from the city streets where he'd run to when he was sleepless in previous years, the true numbers of the stars lay undiscovered. He had thought them more numerous than the largest army, but he had had no idea how much more beautiful than the glint of armor they were...  
The wind rocked along the slope, dragging actual snow around him in thin blankets of a less pleasant kind. They swirled up and tried to obscure his view of the stars, but there were just too many to be hidden.  
_Is it so much colder here that this snow came from that rain two days previous?_ The Prince didn't particularly care, but was hard pressed not to simply lay in the snow and stare up, even though he knew he'd be frozen in an hour.  
After an interminable time he heard a sound that echoed oddly from the rocky crevices, a slight crunching that came toward his position. He peered down the slope and into the cloud bank he'd emerged from, and after a few minutes Goten emerged and headed up to stand near him, also holding his blanket around him.  
"Are you happy now?" Goten's words came after five or so breathless minutes of staring upward himself.  
"'Happy' nay descirbes it..."  
"You're very passionate," was Goten's observation after another silence.  
"... What am I to say to that?"  
"Nothing," was the chuckled response. "Too bad it's so damn cold up here." He shivered as the wind decided to take his cue to pick up. He looked up at Trunks for a moment in silence, and was more impressed by his face than the display above. His head was tilted back to the point of dizziness, looking entranced as he stared up. The light from the stars and a large moon made him look pale and fragile, even though his skin had darkened slightly over the days spent with the ladies, helping them in their chores. Goten's breath caught briefly, or maybe the wind stole it away.  
"Who did you convince to let us come up here?"  
"Videl, and she, Gohan," Goten said after shaking himself from his reverie.  
"Sou ka?" His tone was musing, but after a moment he dropped his face to Goten, who stood beside him shivering slightly. He looked down for a long moment to the face that stared back up at him silently, clouding breath pushing rapidly past his lips. Without knowing what he was doing, or even that he was moving, Trunks leaned down to Goten and allowed his own mouth to brush against his, slowly. Goten took a quick breath and was still, eyes closing as he froze in place and allowed the touch.  
After a moment or so of the sensation, Trunks stopped himself, pulling back and looking down at Goten, who still stood silent. His face looked pale as well in the light, and snowflakes clung to his lashes and melted slowly in his hair. Trunks stood upright with a mental curse, clamping his jaw shut.  
Goten looked up at him now, eyes opening, and blinked uncomprehendingly. Trunks' mind sought an excuse, some kind of-  
"In... in the city, it's a gesture.. of..."  
Goten blinked one final time as he first opened his mouth and turned without listening to him, heading back down the slope in the footprints he'd left coming up. Trunks was left silent, staring after him in total confusion and maybe a little fear.

When Trunks crept in, hours later, half frozen, he listened carefully first, then moved into the cave they'd found farther up the mountain, seeing nothing but the fire. He sat down and rubbed his body where it complained of the former cold, wincing slightly. He looked around and saw Goten sound asleep, curled into a ball away from him.  
Trunks sighed slightly, glad he wouldn't have to see him right away. He'd been foolish to stay out as long as he did, but... He shook out the blanket and brought it close to the fire, letting the heat rays warm it before pulling it around himself again. Goten turned across the cave, tossing his blanket away and shivering. Trunks watched for a moment, and realized he would be in serious trouble before morning if he continued to sleep without a blanket. He pulled Goten's blanket up from the floor and held it up by the fire until it was warm, and tucked it around him silently. Goten's shiver's decreased slightly, and Trunks moved away to lay by the fire and stare into the coals until he fell asleep.  
It felt like a mere blink when his name was called in a mild tone, the word bringing him from his deep sleep in a snap. He was about to sit up, to smile and bid Goten good morning before he remembered what he'd done the night before. He lay still an extra moment until he heard Goten say, "If you don't get going now I'm leaving you up here." Energized by the prospect of warmth once again, Trunks got up and picked up his bag, setting off down the slope in Goten's footprints. ~~~~

When they arrived back at the camp a few days later, they were promptly given food, and both wolfed it down. Trunks went to sleep and Gohan asked Goten to do him a favor.  
"I know you have not yet had opportunity to rest, O-touto-san..."  
"It's not a problem," Goten assured him. "Give me a horse and I'll go to the next camp."  
"Arigatou," Gohan said. "Videl and Trunks and I will get your things together for the move."  
"Then I'll go right away," Goten said as the horse Gohan had gestured for was brought to him. He patted the creature as it was fed its last bit of food for the day. "I think the other groups should all have moved out by now. And we'll be expected to be gone. But if the last group is there, they know me that I might talk them off." Goten mounted and went out of the camp then, and Gohan went to tell Videl and the rest of the people that their things would have to be packed.

Goten made the journey to their next camp site in slightly more than half a day, but that was by himself, the horse running all the way there. When he rode up to where the group should have their sentries posted, he held up his hands even though it was hardly necessary; at least some of them would know him on sight, and most would know he was no enemy.  
These were not some of the people that used to be joined with the Sons' group; these were people from another country who had been denied citizenship in the country they currently called home. With nowhere else to go, they had taken up the habits of the so-called 'bandits' who lived in the forests by the mountains. They were a likeable group who never forgot a face.  
Goten returned the waves and nods of the people as he went to the leader's tent, and explained that they wanted to make one last move before the weather turned cold.  
"I totally understand," the large man replied. "We are in the process of moving; tomorrow we strike camp and should be gone by nightfall. Is this soon enough, or is your party on the way?"  
"No, and I thank you for your help in this." Goten bowed respectfully and allowed them to feed him lunch before he climbed back onto his horse and set off at a gallop along the familiar trails.  
_I need sleep badly... so so tired..._ Goten found himself nodding off several times on the trip, but managed to stay awake until he reached his own camp again. There was a buzz of noise, but he couldn't place what event it may concern. Deciding at last that he didn't care, he went into his own tent.  
Trunks wasn't there. Goten briefly thought that odd, since it was nearly nightfall, but shrugged it aside. _Probably helping lady Videl._ He was laying on his blankets, nearly asleep when his tent flap was thrust open, and Goten groaned as he sat back up.  
"O-nii-chan, doushita no ka na?" He whined, rubbing his eyes.  
"I thought you should know... your 'roommate' is not coming back."  
"Nani yo?" Goten asked, just barely comprehending the last sentance and dreading the explaination.  
"He's been..." Gohan looked aside, making a face. "Abducted by the Royal Guard."  
"Funny." Goten said around a yawn. "Going back to sleep now!" As he moved back down his brother's voice stopped him.  
"Laugh as you will. No one here will take action, so he goes to them, then."  
"Chotto matte, joudan desu ka?" Goten sat up in consternation.  
"Nuh-uh." Gohan shook his head. "I have to stay with Videl; everyone is in the middle of packing and won't go."  
Gohan left. Goten found himself pulling on his boots silently as he argued with himself.  
_Well so what? I guess they came to take him back; we all knew he was some wayward royal child or something... I guess they just had some aristocratic woman crying over her baby boy. I'm tired, why am I putting shoes on? Where am I going?_ Without seeing the path there, Goten found himself at Gohan's tent.  
"You say he was abducted? He was forced to go?"  
"No one saw the beginning of the exchange, or heard; witnesses say he was struck over the head with a sword hilt."  
Goten stood sullenly still. _I don't care. He probably belongs there. He.._ But Gohan went into his tent, and there was no one there whom Goten could argue against.  
_He kissed me..._  
And he realized that even if he decided to be angry with Trunks and hate him, that could come after he'd gotten answers. He turned and found a fresh horse, picking up one of the broad swords that lay around, and followed the direction one who stood near pointed in, looking for hoof prints and smelling the air.

Trunks sighed again, and braced his spine, moving to drop backward off the horse.  
The rope at his legs held him hanging in an odd position off of the horse until one righted him again.  
"Gomen nasai, Ouji-sama, the Queen mother gave us our directions specifically. She said, and I quote, 'He is a damned stubborn mule, and if he's taken it into his mind to leave the castle then you'll have to tie him up to bring him back.' No disrespect, sir..." The guard glanced back at him apologetically.  
"Did you have to hit me so damn hard?" Trunks reached his tied hands up to rub his throbbing head. "Deus!"  
"Gomen nasai."  
One of the other guards brought his horse up alongside and looked at Trunks. "Ouji-sama... may I ask why you wanted to be out here?"  
"No you may not," Trunks said curtly.  
Some of the other guards, there were five in all, gave each other various looks, but after that Trunks was left alone.  
There was indeed a long silence as the edge of the forest loomed closer. All of a sudden there was a scream from behind them and a thud as of a body hitting the ground. The horse neighed loudly and ran, spooking a young pony that another rode, and both horses took off into the woods.  
The horse that Trunks was on raced faster as the other guards went back to meet the attacker.  
Trunks twisted but could see nothing. He turned back ahead and they were confronted with a chestnut-colored blur that resolved into horse and rider, the silver flash cutting down the young guard in front of Trunks. He paused as he cringed, thinking of all those stories of real bandits that Goten had...  
"Goten?"  
Goten looked at him with a motionless face for a long moment before swinging the sword. It cut the ropes around Trunks' legs that bound him to the horse's gear, and he promptly toppled to the ground. Goten was unable to hold back a slight smile at his expression, and climbed down onto the ground, holding his horse by the reins as he came closer.  
There was a shout from the forest and a sword was thrown past them. The guard had another, Trunks could see as he rushed in. The riderless horse bolted, and Goten's reared up, only the grip he had on the reins keeping it from fleeing as well. Trunks looked up as the guard raced toward them. Leaning back and taking a gamble, he kicked the horse in the kneecap as it passed, and it veered away to hobble aside and refused to be budged. The guard joined the other one on foot and rushed Goten, but by this time his horse was calm and he reached for his sword. Trunks blinked and missed the first defeat, but Goten soon finished off the second one. He stood still and wiped his dripping blade on the clothing of the guards. At last he looked at Trunks and said, "Tell me you didn't want to go with them."  
Trunks blinked at him, couldn't help a small smile, and continued to watch him with large eyes. _Why did he come after me?_  
Goten searched his gaze, trying to come up with some way to ask, to find out the answers to the many questions he had. But Trunks' expression was simple gratitude, nothing like he would have thought could.. maybe...  
Goten shook these confused thoughts from his head and moved down to one knee, his fingers working the knot at the other young man's bonds only clumsily. He could feel Trunks' gaze on his bent head, and at last he looked up.  
Trunks' expression was still not anything he could really decipher, but it brought him to a stop.  
"Why... are you looking at me like that?"  
Trunks flinched slightly. "I... " The knot came loose and Trunks rubbed his wrist absently. "Why did you come for me?"  
"I'm not sure." Goten admitted this only after thought. "Does it matter?"  
"I... _think_ so," Trunks told him, "But I'm not sure why."  
"If you don't know, then how does it matter?" Goten asked as he rose and offered a hand.  
Trunks allowed himself to be pulled up. Goten glanced around for a horse, but the guards' horses had left, so he moved over and mounted his own, waiting for Trunks to climb on.  
Goten turned the horse for home, feeling even more exhausted than before, consciously aware of the silence behind him. He set the horse to go slowly, seeing as how it had run itself ragged on the way there.  
Goten's mind wandered even when he knew it should be still, thinking about that night on the mountain as Trunks held onto him. He found himself a little too aware of how close they were, how secure the grip on his waist, how... Goten shook his head. _Why should I be concerned for this princeling's baby? He's a wimp anyway, and associating with them is deadly._  
At last, as if driven by the silence to comment, Trunks said in his ear, "I noticed you have fair swordsmanship. I think I should like to test your skills when we get back."  
"You, who have begged on the street for your very life?" Trunks shut up pretty quickly after that, and left Goten to his thoughts. At last Goten sighed.  
"Well, and I suppose it would make no difference to ask you why they came for you, but I must know; are my family and those around me in danger from you?"  
Trunks paused as if curious at his tone. "And if they were you would throw me aside."  
"You would do them an injustice to remain near them in that case, anyway. No, I would remove you from the environment."  
"Well, I wouldn't do anything to them." Goten decided that was as close to an answer as he would get.  
"I suppose it won't matter once we've made the move."  
"What move?"  
"No one told you we were about to move? I suppose they didn't get around to it; it takes me longer usually. We're moving to a new camp. We do it every so often. We rotate for available places with other people using them." Goten heard no comment come back, so he allowed himself a yawn and stretched his arms. "I hate killing."  
"Yet you killed for me." Trunks' voice was muted.  
"Is that what you're thinking of?" There was once again no comment. "Well, and speak up, for if someone is silent then they are plotting something."  
"Where you come from," Trunks commented.  
"Tell me what is on your mind," Goten instructed him at last.  
"Iie."  
"Well! Fine, and you be like that."  
Trunks listened to him unwilling, amused as ever by his round dialect. He at last offered up, "You were quite a sight."  
"Nani?"  
"When you rode up with your sword flashing around... I was impressed." Trunks paused. "And even more so the fact that you defeated five of the highest level guards the castle has to offer..."  
"And you know _how_ their rankings?"  
Trunks was silent.  
"Who are you?"  
No response.  
"If you tell me now, I won't be angry you know."  
"If you won't be angry, then what does it matter?"  
"You should go back where you belong if there is such a place." Goten muttered, half unwilling.  
"You said there was a place for people like me."  
"The fact that such a place exists doesn't mean that I know it," Goten returned, curious at Trunks' near toneless voice.  
"You want me gone?"  
Goten paused where he would have been more comfortable had he a ready reply. Trunks was silent behind him as he waited.  
"No..." Goten said quietly at last.  
Trunks seemed to have found the answer he looked for. "Then say nothing more, I pray thee." There was something about that last that added an ending sharpness to the words, and Goten was unwilling to test that edge. After a long time of silence between them, Trunks felt Goten shift back against him. He paused and looked around at him.  
He was asleep. _The fool can sleep anywhere._ But Goten's face was soft in his sleep, and the Prince stared at him for a long time, wondering what he dreamed, if he dreamed. He took the reins and put his arms more securely about Goten and hoped that the horse had some idea where 'home', for it, was.


	3. Chapter 3

The Best of Both Worlds, part 3  
By: Chocolate-chan

As the day wore on the talking of the older people and the children's laughter died down, and they were all quiet to an almost disturbing level. As many people as could ride double rode horses, and they were glad when several people went into the forest and found five stray horses that no one seemed to remember seeing in the other bands of bandits and nomads.  
Lady Videl rode her horse alone with her husband guiding it by the reigns, walking beside her and keeping an eye on her at all times. She was pale, and her lips clamped tightly shut with the jostling of the trail, but Gohan knew that if she tried to walk she would soon be on the horse again at any rate. And she was well into her ninth month, and food was alarmingly scarce.  
_I pray to thee, whatever entities my mother once told me resided above us..._ Gohan raised his head. "Aozora..."  
Videl frowned in his direction. "Blue skies? What about them?"  
"Nothing, just thinking of something my mother told me once. She said there were people who lived above the clouds that watched over us..." Gohan trailed off when Videl shuddered.  
"They're _watching_ us? Creepy. Hentais. Bet they're men." Gohan offered her a tight-lipped smile and went back to thinking.  
_Watch over this woman and allow nothing to happen to her. She is my life..._  
"O-nii-chan," Goten said as his horse slowed, Trunks in front at the reins. "You look tired. Do you want to ride for a while?"  
"Genki desu ne," Gohan assured him quickly. The path narrowed and they were forced ahead of Gohan, and he watched them for a moment.  
They never told any in the camp what had transpired that day when they arrived back in camp. Gohan had noticed that they seemed tense, but said nothing on the assumption that it would be unwelcome. A cry sounded in the croud that interrupted his thoughts, and he couldn't help but smile to himself. Makoto had delivered her baby a few days before, she who had been with Videl at every step of their pregnancies. It meant to him that he would soon have a child of his own. Gohan couldn't help but smile. Videl seemed to know what he thought, for she reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder.  
Goten was sleepy, and laid his head on Trunks' shoulder. Trunks glanced back at him but said nothing. Gohan wondered.  
"Don't pry," Videl murmured softly to him.  
"Well, and I am not prying, they are blocking my view." Gohan spat aside and cursed a round curse, one that was intended to stop her questions.  
"If you ever curse like that around my child, you will be sleeping beside the communal fire."  
Gohan groaned, but then grinned to himself again. _Her child... my child!_

Goten laughed at Trunks as he tried to set up the tent. Well, Goten had asked him because everyone needed some laughs. Trunks twisted it this way and that, and when one inquired as to the problem, he complained, "It's too _big_!" This amused many, as there were many families with at least three children, even more, and Goten had never previously even offered to make room in his tent for anyone because it was so small.  
At last Goten relieved him of his chore and bade him go to the stream and bring a bucket of water for the tent. By the time Trunks had come and gone, the tent was up and Goten sat in its shade talking to his friends.  
Osamu returned Trunks' greeting immediately. Touya pursed his lips and said in amusement, "I suppose they came that day to take you back to your family, little princeling?"  
Trunks affected an insulted air and Osamu punched Touya in the arm. "Lay off. Goten trusts him. That's all that's important."  
"As you say. Goten, I didn't think you slummed with royalty." Goten gave Touya an odd look, and Trunks merely went inside the tent and waited until one said "He is gone." He rejoined Osamu and Goten beside the tent.  
"He's a jerk, and you never did anything to him. Gomen..." Osamu began, glancing sidelong at Trunks, who shrugged.  
"Being a 'little princeling,' I've met many snobbier than him. You could say I slummed with royalty as well." Osamu laughed, and after a moment wherein Trunks winked at Goten, the other two joined in. Goten's gaze remained on Trunks for a moment, still wondering if it were true.  
"Dinner!" Juuhachigou called to the men, and they were smart enough to get up and move, because from her they wouldn't get a second summons until the best parts were gone. After they got out of the line, the three lounged as they ate in the shade of the tent. Goten laid back, still hungry, but glad for any food at all, and lazy under the warmth of the sun. Osamu soaked a stick of dried meat in his soup, drank the soup, and laid back on the grass at Goten's side as they had done when they were still children. Goten looked up at the sky, and caught a glance of Trunks, his head moving as though searching for someone or something. When he found it, his gaze remained for a long moment, before he wrapped his dried meat into a piece of cloth or some such and stowed it somewhere on his person. Goten wondered about that. _Probably saving it for when he feels hungry again. I get really hungry in the middle of the night._ After that, Trunks laid back as well and the three passed their time idly pointing out shapes in the sunset-colored clouds.  
After a time there were footsteps coming toward them. Goten raised his head slightly to watch as Marron approached. "Oi, Marron-chan! Nani kashira?"  
Marron smiled at him but turned to Osamu. "You should go to sleep. Word is that the men are going out to do some such thing tomorrow. It is early, too."  
"Thank you," Osamu said as she walked away. Goten began singing a marriage song. Osamu beat up on him until he dissolved in laughter.  
"You cut that out!"  
"Osamu to Marron-chan, suki ga eien!" Goten chanted until Osamu threatened to set fire to his tent. He went real quiet.  
Gohan approached them a bit later. "Trunks?"  
Trunks propped himself up onto his elbows, curious since Gohan had never really addressed him before.  
"Would you stay with Videl again tomorrow? I know I said before that we could use you help..."  
"Of course," Trunks replied.  
"If the labors come, Juuhachigou has offered to help." Trunks nodded, and Gohan went back to where he sat with his wife.  
"He must be concerned," Goten murmured.  
"Why do you say that?" Osamu asked. "I mean, he should be, but it's not such a thing."  
Goten bit his lip and moved his hands behind his head. "I shouldn't say this, but there is far less food than either of you are told." He didn't look at them as he said it.  
"So? It's always that way in winter," Osamu said. "It's always 'We have no food to spring, we shall die...' and only those who get kicked into the cold by their wives die. No one's wife is that unfeeling."  
"It's worse than I've ever seen it this year..." Goten began, but Trunks drew his eyes. The purple-haired one was propped onto his elbows still, and his eyes followed a dark speck in the air. The speck swooped and turned, and there was a tiny flash of red that trailed it. Trunks' eyes never left the bird as it flew. It stopped circling their camp, and moved off in some direction. Trunks sat up and squinted into the sky, then rose and went into Goten's tent, retrieved a single glove and stood before the tent, searching until he found the bird with his eyes, then set out after it slowly, eyes upraised.  
"Now _that_..." Osamu claimed, "was ex_treme_ly weird."  
"He's headed to the river," Goten said, pushing himself to sitting up, then getting to his feet to follow. Osamu, not wanting to be left out, paced him as they headed directly for the river.  
When they arrived nothing and no one was in sight. "You were wrong, Goten..." the blond-haired young man was cut off as Trunks emerged from the forest on a different bend of the river, still looking above. The bird was larger now, and Goten watched as it swooped down to the water's surface, talons breaking the surface. It rose into a circle as it came up empty, and went down toward the water again. It came up with a fish glittering as it writhed in the bird's grip, but the fish was too large for it to keep a grip on, and it slid into the water once more.  
As the two bandit-boys watched, Trunks pulled on the glove and held it in front of him. He then whistled; one long call, two short at a lower pitch. The bird's circle became less certain. Trunks repeated his signal. The bird turned and headed for him in an under-arc, and just as Osamu exclaimed, "It's attacking him!", the bird landed gracefully on his forearm.  
Trunks held his arm up and examined the bird, petting it gently on the head, and examining the red ribbon that was attached to its leg. Then he seemed to look up and notice them standing there, and waved slightly, not wanting to disturb the bird.  
Goten headed toward him on the bank, and Osamu followed.  
"Whoa. Trunks-kun, how'd you make it just..." Osamu flapped his arms and imitated the bird until Goten slapped him in the head for making the bird nervous.  
"How'd you know that call, Trunks?" Goten asked at last, looking at him carefully.  
Trunks looked at him, then turned and walked into the forest. _Was that to avoid looking me in the eye?_ But as he walked, he said, "That call is popular to the falconers."  
"Whoa... howda you know?" Osamu asked.  
"I heard things, when I went to the inns. The nobles would fly with their falcons in the countryside, and rest at the inn and talk about it." Trunks led the way back to the camp as he stroked the bird's feathers.  
In the camp, people crowded around, especially little children, to pet the 'pretty birdie.'  
"Gentle," Trunks told a small child who was about to grasp the bird and hence rip out a handful of feathers. "If I can get the falcon to obey my commands..." this he said almost as an afterthought, "I can get him to hunt fish and small game for us to eat." The people around were impressed, never having had experience with falcons before, since the birds were rich pets.  
"Trunks, is that really how you got it?" Goten asked.  
Trunks looked at the wide dark eyes that regarded the bird with some amazement. His expression was innocent and trusting. The Prince felt very guilty when he lied and said, "Yes."  
"Sugoi..." Goten said, reaching forward to pet the bird.

Trunks rose during the night a few nights later, blasted awake by a burst of wind as cold as any they'd experienced on the mountain. It had freed some of Goten's moorings at the bottom of the tent, and blew right on him. Too tired to fix it right, Trunks set a brick or something on it. The bird entered his mind with the next thought.  
Trunks rose and went out from the tent, to where the falcon sat on a perch he'd made for it outside the tent. It tried to hang on, putting its head under its wing to ignore the cold. Trunks reached in belatedly for the glove that had already been slashed by the sharp talons, and coaxing the bird onto his arm. He pulled the perch up from the ground and took it into the tent, setting it again and letting the bird move onto it. He fingered the ribbon that hung from the bird's leg. There was patterning on it, handmade. It was Bra's favorite color, and she had embroidered onto it the pretty pattern, because the ribbon had been her favorite from the time her brother gave it to her. The bird's color-pattern was familiar as well, so there was no mistake.  
"Trunks?" Goten's voice came weakly as he watched the bird tuck its head once more under its wing.  
"Go to sleep, Goten."  
"I'm too cold." Goten looked at him over the edge of the blanket, shivering although he had two blankets and was sleeping beside the fire.  
"Do you want one of mine, then?"  
"That wouldn't be fair." Goten said. He shivered again. "Don't tell me you're not cold!"  
"Actually, I'm freezing. Thanks for not taking my blanket." Trunks grinned as he sat down and was about to cover up again.  
"I got it," Goten said. "Come over here. Get your blankets." After a moment's movement, Goten was pulling Trunks under all of the blankets next to him. Trunks was a little uncomfortable, but Goten said, "Once in some winters it was so, and whole families slept under the same blanket, nay, their neighbors came in, as many as could fit in a tent and allow a fire, and all would share."  
"Will any come this night?"  
"It's not that cold yet," Goten said. He readjusted the blankets, and he was so close Trunks could feel him shivering.  
Just as Trunks was about to drop off, there was a fresh howl of the wind, and Goten yelped and his body hit Trunks', as a gust of freezing wind swirled about the tent, nearly knocking the falcon from her perch. Trunks leaned over quickly and placed something heavy against the spot that had opened up, feeling Goten clutch at him, furiously shaking. Trunks pulled his arms from the tent material, bringing himself back slowly. Goten's eyes were shut tightly, as if warding off both the cold and the Prince's questioning eyes.  
After a long time, Goten's grip eased off, as did his shaking, and Trunks himself began to feel warmer.  
_Does he think I'm out yet?_ Goten wondered to himself, keeping his breathing even, eyes shut tightly. Trunks' arms didn't complete their journey back across him, remaining draped over him gently. For some reason, he didn't want to "talk," or whatever plan had been in Trunks' gaze over the past few days. Goten himself didn't know what he wanted.  
Trunks' arms wrapped tighter around him, actually holding him now, and Goten's heart skipped a beat. _Why do I feel so weird...?_ Trunks sighed softly, leaning toward him and whispering, "You have to fall asleep so fast?"  
Goten, realizing he'd been found out, opened his eyes obligingly enough, and blinked at Trunks, pulling the blankets higher around them and blowing on his cold hands in front of his mouth in a nervous gesture. Trunks grinned slightly, and Goten blushed. "I was _trying_ to sleep."  
No comment was forthcoming, but Trunks laid his head down and didn't release his grip. Surprisingly, Goten was glad. He wasn't entirely sure why, but...  
Trunks hardly blinked, watching him. Goten closed his eyes as if to try to sleep, but the feeling of someone watching him drove him to open them again and glare slightly. Trunks blinked slightly, and Goten saw that his eyes looked strangely dark. After a long moment, Goten remembered that his eyes wouldn't hurt if he blinked them, but he couldn't remember how..  
Trunks kissed him without warning, and Goten didn't register movement until the other young man's mouth was pressed gently to his. Goten's heart made an odd movement and started beating faster as he tried to come up with some kind of response, verbal or physical. After a moment, Trunks' tongue grazed his lips, gently begging entrance. A gasp allowed it, and a second later Goten felt as though all sense of- everything- had been swept away from him, as the other pulled him close and pressed their mouths tightly together, leaning into him, tasting him thoroughly.  
As that kiss ended the second began, a heat taking the place of what had been cold before. Time after time they traded kisses, touches, brief whispers stolen between passionate moments. After the longest time, Trunks forced himself to end the cycle, wanting to see Goten's face before him. Goten's eyes were dark as the night, but his face looked rather pale as he regarded Trunks in silence, eyes at least twice their normal size. After a moment he clutched a hand to his mouth and pulled the blankets up to his chin in deep thought. He opened his mouth to speak several times, pausing at the bite of cold air where his mouth had been warmed. As he tried and failed to form some words, Trunks at last shook his head and rolled onto his back, still keeping Goten close. "Goodnight."  
Goten's voice failed him even for that. Trunks held the other boy close to his side, and was asleep. Goten found himself wanting to be awake for some reason, but soon succumbed to the comforting warmth he gave off.

Goten evaded Trunks the entire next morning, even though he had seen the other boy watching him from across the fire early on. Trunks' gaze was narrowed, but it was not telling. Anything could be going on there.  
Goten moved off into the forest after looking around for some errand to perform. When he found none, he moved off toward the river with the idea of a bath, even though it would freeze him to the bone.  
"Goten-kun!" A happy voice called. Not Trunks, then. He hadn't sounded truly happy the entire time Goten had known him. Well, maybe on the mountain, under the stars... Goten pushed the thought away.  
"Oi, Osamu-san. Nani kashira?"  
"Don't be formal, Go-kun. Let's play a game!" He brandished a deck of cards purloined from bandits.  
"Where's Touya?"  
"We thought it would be fun with four people," Osamu informed him, and they made their way to the secluded spot by the lake where they always played this game. Goten was somehow less than comfortable but less than surprised to find Trunks there, with Touya teaching him the basics of the game. Goten knew that Trunks thought the other dark-haired boy hated him, but Touya was just like that. He had been moody and emotional ever since a few years ago when his parents were killed by Royal Guards. Trunks dealt back in his hand as Touya handed his cards to Osamu. "Two-deck game?"  
"It's only appropriate," Osamu said as the four arranged themselves around a central rock and Osamu asked Trunks, "You sure you understand how to play?"  
"Yeah, I guess so. I never really played too many card games before."  
"Why, what did you do?" Goten couldn't help but ask. Trunks tensed, and then shrugged. "You don't know _any_thing."  
Trunks' expression seemed mildly hurt, but he shrugged again and turned away as though it didn't matter that Goten had avoided him, and was now treating him like an idiot. Goten inwardly cringed, as he realized he was taking out his own agitation on the other young man. Touya acted as though he didn't notice, and Osamu was quiet, hands pausing briefly.  
"Anyway, twos are wild..." Osamu launched into his pre-game ramble that had to be halted and slowed for Trunks.  
At last they could get down to the game, and Touya slapped down his first card. Goten moved and took his card, trading a few cards for the starting cards, as Osamu kept count, and all then coached Trunks on his move. He got the hang of it really quickly, until at last, Osamu ran out of cards.  
"The winner!" Goten exclaimed. "Four cards."  
Trunks had a whole handful, and Touya, who had only two cards, was in second place, so he got to call. "Uhm..."  
"Y'know, Touya-kun," Goten suggested slyly, "You really need to pay him back for that time he made you..."  
"_I_!" Touya said with an upraised hand, cutting him off. "...remember well." He thought. "Got it."  
Trunks cocked his head. "I didn't hear about this part."  
Goten turned as Osamu, who was far less than concerned about his fate, turned coolly and said, "The price of winning is the second-place person gets to pick your deed, the most awful thing they can think of. And it's always been our ground rule that whoever backs out has to _walk_, not run, but walk naked through the camp at dinnertime."  
"No one warned me about this," Trunks began, but Goten shrugged.  
"No one's ever backed out; it's just to make sure you don't. It can't be so bad, just grin 'n bear it 'n it'll be over." Goten said this with the assuredness of someone who'd been forced into quite a few dares of his own.  
"You, my fine feathered friend..." Touya began with a chuckle, "Must go.. without being seen, mind you, into Krillen-san's tent, steal Marron's underwear that was washed yesterday, and..." Touya glanced at Goten, who sported big eyes and waited for the catch to spring, "Fly it from the top of their tent!"  
"Ooohh..." Goten said appreciatively. Osamu looked not quite so crisp and cool now, thinking about having to piss off Marron. "Hey man, if you fail it's fine... if you do you'll be seen, and then you won't get the chance to make her mad. If you win, pretend you don't know anything about it and you know we'll back you up."  
"Yeah, no one will believe us," Osamu said, then sighed and rose to his feet and went away from the spot.  
"What'll we do 'till he gets back?" Trunks asked. Goten again shrugged.  
Touya moved to sit on another rock and look at the lake. Goten picked up a stick and started scratching in the dirt. Trunks played with the cards until he caught a glimpse of Goten's scribbles. He sat in the dirt and his tongue peeked out of the corner of his mouth as his stick moved slowly, tracing out a line, an intersect... after a moment he had written "Goten" in the dirt.  
"What'cha doin?" Trunks asked curiously.  
"Nothin'," Goten replied, and next to his words Trunks noticed that


	4. Chapter 4

The Best of Both Worlds, part 4  
By: Chocolate-chan

Trunks sank the fingers of his left hand into the soft mud as his entire arm numbed quickly. The mud provided a poor conduit for his pain, squooshing between his fingers. Trunks raised his sword, warding off a blow intended for his neck. He brought his feet up under him and vaulted upward with a shout of pain hidden as anger when the skin stretched and annoyed him with its sting. Trunks swung his sword in a slashing motion.  
He knew that Goten totally couldn't read him, since his face was growing more confused by the moment, his brows meeting thickly above his eyes... _stay focused!_ Trunks laid into his opponent with a barrage of blows, one blow crossing the minor scratch across his ribs, the other bringing a gout of blood that splashed across Trunks' face from his shoulder.  
The man retaliated with a shout and ran toward him, furious that he was being hit. He struck low and slashed Trunks' pant leg open, drawing a gout of blood that quickly soaked the pant leg as Trunks struggled to remain on his feet.  
_He has all the experience over me, alright,_ Trunks told himself. _I'm not playing in the courtyard anymore._ He was frustrated that the guy would be able to best him in such a match of skills, with Goten and the world watching. He was probably almost twice his own age, and bigger and more muscular to boot. _Still,_ Trunks told himself, _no excuses!_  
He moved forward as he struck the next blow, his blade scraping upwards along the good quality plundered sword as he moved forward with a thrust of his good leg. The other was feeling numb.  
He registered surprise on the other's face, and he threw himself onto the guy, half slipping and half intentional, bringing them both to the ground even though he knew that he could already have been dead by this point. The hilt of the other's sword rapped him so hard on the head that he saw stars, whether intentionally or no he wasn't sure. When Trunks pulled himself from the twitching body under him, he left his sword buried in the man's chest.  
There was a gasp as it was realized, and Trunks, unable to stand, fell to his rear on the ground once more, then back to his back, his head falling aside. In his frame of vision there was a pack of rearing steeds with yelling riders, and several men of the camp grabbed up swords. Gohan moved and checked Trunks' former opponent for signs of life. Goten didn't seem to care about the outcome, but reached over and grabbed the sword and yanked it upward, tearing it free of flesh and clothing. The body convulsed once and was still.  
"Get out of here!" Goten yelled to the pack of men who looked murderous enough to set fire to everything in sight. "Keep your word and we won't kill you! Leave now as you agreed!" He brandished the bloodied sword for effect.  
Muttering and swearing, the horses turned and went from the camp, and Trunks blinked once gratefully, glad that there would be no trouble. As his eyes began to close, he saw a flash of red light; the bloody sword reflecting the light as it was dropped and thudded into the ground. Goten hit his knees beside Trunks and picked up the fallen young man's head in his hands.  
"Hold on, Trunks... it's okay.." Goten said, looking concerned as those around also appeared far out of Trunks' sight range, above Goten looking down. "You did good."  
"Thanks," Trunks chuckled. He felt light-headed suddenly, and could just feel Goten scooping him up as he passed out.

Trunks felt a pain throbbing as he came to again, but far less than before. He wasn't in the mud, he was in a tent, comfortable and too cold, but everything was cold. Trunks turned his head to see Goten sitting across the tent, the flap pulled back slightly to let in a triangle of sunlight. His hair shone brightly as he studied something in his hands. Trunks turned his head slightly, realizing that Goten was studying a piece of paper. As Trunks moved, however, Goten folded it and stowed it somewhere.  
"Are you up?" Goten asked softly, crawling over toward him.  
"Awake, yes, up.. working on it," Trunks managed to say.  
"Everyone tried to come by and thank you for what you did."  
"Get myself nearly killed? I _am_ killed; I'm just here as an example of what not to do." Goten smiled at him slightly, so Trunks considered it a minor victory.  
"So..." Goten said slowly, sitting up near him. "Are you who they said you are?"  
"You would believe people like that?" Trunks asked.  
Goten looked off toward the door, refusing to meet his gaze. "I _would_ believe _you_, but you've been lying to me this whole time, and there isn't anyone who doesn't know it. Are you the prince?" At this last, Goten hesitated, but looked into his eyes as he asked.  
"What does it matter?" Trunks asked. He took stock of himself quickly. His leg hurt, the right knee. The left upper arm was bandaged but didn't do more than throb when he moved it. He reached over with no warning, pulling Goten to him. Goten was fairly light but his size made it difficult. If he had resisted the touch he wouldn't have been moved. But he was, and Trunks pulled the slightly smaller young man down against him. Goten looked as though he were holding back what he would say.  
"As far as I'm concerned, I don't ever want to think about that..." He searched Goten's gaze carefully. "...Ever again."  
Goten looked as though he were at a loss for words, now. Trunks waited, head tilted slightly, but no words came.  
After a moment, Goten shivered slightly, and then leaned his head down, kissing Trunks quickly, not leaving time for response before he pulled his face back away. "I don't care about it... as long as you stay here..." Goten said in a voice near a whisper.  
Trunks regarded him with great surprise. This was the reason Goten had never resisted him? But if he stayed here, not only would he be near Goten, he would have no responsibilities as a prince any longer.  
But as Trunks thought about it, he considered his mother and his sister; he loved them both very much. And he knew his mother had not given up with the "disappearance" of her guards. She would come after him and try to talk "sense" into him. And the way things stood now, Goten and his family and friends would probably get hurt in the process.  
"Goten, if I stay here, how can I change things?"_ Besides, Kaa-san won't give up on her "little baby."_  
"First you say you want to forget it, then you talk about going straight back to your life as if..." Goten seemed distressed, and tried to throw himself away from Trunks, who used every ounce of strength he possessed to hang onto him.  
"As if I were forgetting you? I'd never do that... even if I wanted to." Trunks tone stopped Goten, who looked down at him with his dark eyes filled with hurt. "I don't ever want to leave, but there's no way I can stay."  
"Trunks..."  
"You don't know. My mother won't give me up for lost; I'm her little wayward charge. I've always been. She'll get me back and cry over my 'brainwashing' by the 'heathens'... besides, I have a little sister to think of, and even if that weren't the case..." Trunks sighed. "I've seen this now. No one should be forced to live like you have been. I want to make it so that none of these people have to suffer like this. You say they had land and homes in the city? I'll find them, and when I do I'll give them back."  
"This is my _life_," Goten exclaimed. "What do I care if I have a home in the city? What do I care if you go and do whatever it is you'd do to fix things? I finally found something _to_ care about, some_one_..." he broke off.  
"What about Gohan and Videl? They're going to have a family. Can you stand to look at your brother's face day after day and see the pain he must feel? Not only was his little brother raised out in the middle of nowhere, even his own children won't even have a proper home." Goten looked extremely guilty as Trunks said all this.  
"Trunks..." He closed his eyes, and Trunks pulled him down, meeting his mouth softly, good arm wrapping around his waist and pulling Goten against him tightly as they kissed. Goten's hand moved to touch his face, a small sound being swallowed by the other's mouth. As it drew out, the two of them engaging in the sweetest kind of duel, Trunks could feel Goten, and himself for that matter, becoming aroused. Trunks' breath caught as Goten's grip on his arm became painful, but Goten moved his hand quickly, the sudden rush of pain only leaving the Prince more heady than with just Goten's presence.  
After a moment his eyes opened slightly, seeing Goten's face above him, and as Goten pulled the barest distance away, Trunks could see the same need there as he himself felt. Goten kissed him again, and Trunks used his grip on Goten to drag the dark-haired one against him, feeling Goten shudder slightly and press closer to him, mouths going deeper. Trunks arched his hips into Goten, who made a sound and returned the movement, the two of them clinging tightly together as their hips moved against each other's, grinding in, until Goten made a small sound, pushing harder against him.  
Trunks' hand crept into his shirt, up along his spine, and down again as they moved against each other. Goten made a sound almost like a whimper, but as Trunks' fingers slowly descended the ladder of his backbone, the sound turned into something resembling a purr, and past midway it grew deeper, more erotic, something between a growl and a moan. Trunks moved his hand back up just as slowly to repeat the motion as Goten lost his breath and panted softly.  
"_Goten!_"  
The two of them stopped in their tracks, so to speak, at the sound of a girl screaming Goten's name from somewhere in the camp accompanied by other sounds of shock made by people. There were running footsteps as Goten pulled himself from Trunks, face flushed, and moved toward the tent flap he had earlier closed. As he opened it, Marron came running into him and collided with his chest.  
"Goten, the bandits!" she cried. Trunks distinctly caught the acrid odor of smoke on her.  
"Where?"  
"The cabin." There was a small abandoned cabin that was used by some of the people when they used this camp. This time, as no one was wounded, everyone had agreed that Videl should be taken there since she was so far along. Goten obviously remembered this in a flash and was out of the tent, leaving Marron panting.  
"What happened?" Trunks asked, sitting up with some difficulty.  
"The bandits set fire to the cabin. I saw them riding away!" Marron insisted.  
"They would take their revenge so soon?"  
"You slept four days!" Marron said, and Trunks told her to throw him his shirt. As he tugged it on he moved to stand, limping painfully toward the column of smoke that was frighteningly close to the tents. Marron raced ahead of him as orange flames licked the freezing gray sky.  
As Trunks arrived, there was movement in the doorway. Goten came out, staggering under Videl's weight. He brought her away and handed her off to the hands of someone standing nearby. Trunks looked at the cabin and considered. The timbers were thin and dry, and rotting already. The flames were taking over at an alarming rate. Goten had to have known that, coughing as he was. Trunks moved down to help Videl, and she coughed weakly as they eased her to the ground.  
"Who else is in there?" Someone asked.  
"Gohan!" Goten said, to the dismay of those around. "He was trapped under a fallen timber, unconscious!" Goten prepared to turn and go back with no other words, but there was a deafening _crack!_ as the roof caved suddenly, taking good sections of the wall down as well.  
"You can't go back in there, Goten!" Trunks called, but Goten was not listening. Some of the other men knew it was over when the roof caved, and they held Goten back as he struggled, calling Gohan's name.  
Trunks pulled himself up again and came to Goten, falling on him with arms wrapped around him, holding him back. "It's too late, Goten! I don't want us to lose you too!"  
Goten didn't entirely stop struggling, but it was weak, as he watched the cabin being quickly consumed by flame. It felt as though it had taken only two seconds to Trunks, who knew it was just perspective. Goten stood with Trunks hanging around his neck, watching the cabin as the other men eased off. Trunks rasped something to him over and over again, even he himself was unsure what.  
"Gohan..." Goten mumbled, tears overcoming his eyes, and though his face was turned toward the flames, it was doubtful that he saw it.

There was a period of silence in the camp, wherein the fire was doused as it burned itself out, and Goten couldn't bring himself to go closer or farther from it, remaining where he was, slumping down to the ground and taking Trunks with him as he sat in agony. The men went in and took Gohan's body out as it cooled, and Goten was never allowed to see it.  
Trunks held onto Goten for a long time, telling him anything that he could think of that might make him feel the tiniest bit better, to know that he wasn't alone, but it all hit Goten so fast, as fast or faster than the event had occurred in Trunks' mind, and he didn't make replies to what Trunks said.  
At last, half a day later, at nightfall, one came to Goten as to say, "And there is your sister, who is going into labor from all that's happened."  
"It would happen now?" Goten asked in a soft broken voice, at last turning his tear-stained face toward someone.  
"Such things take time to begin. As none have eaten so much as a morsel these past five days now, and everything before that was tiniest scraps to make us feel as though we were fed, I wouldn't hold out much hope for Lady Videl."  
Goten looked truly frightened, and Trunks watched his face, knowing that the labor pains would kill Videl. Goten had never looked so young, knowing that if something were to be done then he was to do it, but he had no clue.  
"I wouldn't entirely give up hope," the woman said, sympathetic yet practical. "The baby was fed well throughout the pregnancy, and will survive if any of us survive, and no one will simply allow Videl to die. But the chances are grim, as there is none around who has food they would spare, and none here has any at all. The baby, however, will be fine."  
Goten paused and licked salty tears from his lips. "Are you sure?"  
"Unless Videl dies first, and then what must be done will be done." The woman was giving facts that were simply that to her: facts. To Goten, they were shattering blows. For Trunks, the women's role in this tiny community brought home the sheer "wrongness" of their situation even more than ever. Goten sat as the woman walked turned to go.  
But she paused. "Your sister-in-law... says that you should be in charge now." With that she left. It wasn't a vote of confidence, or any type of betrayal. But Trunks wondered, as Goten closed his eyes and allowed his head to fall forward.  
"..Goten...?"  
"They're all dying," Goten whispered. "It's my fault."  
"It's not, Goten, you know better than that..."  
"Leave me be," Goten insisted weakly, turning his face away and scrubbing at it with the back of one hand.  
Trunks sensed that what he said would not be heeded. Instead he rose shakily to his feet and moved back to the tent.  
Goten remained in his spot and stared at the remains of the burnt cabin. Videl would need him, and he would go, but first...  
_Gohan... it's so unfair..._ Goten dried his eyes and recalled his brother, who had always been so responsible. _How could I ever be you?_ Trunks came past him again, but didn't stop in his limping pace. Goten watched him walk slowly across the camp. He was headed for the biggest tent, for that was where Videl was.  
_...? What's he-?_  
After a few minutes, Goten rose and fixed his resolve on, heading to the tent as well. As he opened the tent flap, the smell of sweat and fire hit him. The smoke was from the cabin fire, but there was a well-made fire in the tent, with water boiling over it. Goten saw Videl's bed, where she lay, panting slightly. By the fire was Juuhachigou, since Videl was between times, and Trunks spoke to her in tones too soft to hear. After a moment, her face showed surprise, and Trunks proffered something that he pulled from somewhere on him. Juuhachigou opened up the cloth and stared for a moment at the pieces of meat that lay inside, and Goten recalled in a flash at every meal when Trunks had set some aside. Juuhachigou dropped the pieces into the boiling water quickly, to make them soft and easy to chew.  
As Goten took an uncertain step toward them, he heard the blond woman say, "You have saved her life."  
"Trunks?" Goten asked, and Trunks turned and flashed him a smile.  
"I think your sister wants to see you." He pointed, and Goten headed over to kneel beside Videl with no further word.  
"Videl? Videl-san?" Goten took her hand. After a moment, her clouded blue eyes opened and blinked at him. Sweat poured down her deathly pale face, and though Goten's mind told him, _It is an ill thing for a man to attend a mother..._ he grabbed the bowl of water and wrung the cloth, wiping her face gently._ I don't believe there could be more bad fortune than there has already been today,_ he told himself. Videl looked somewhat comforted that he was alright.  
"You weren't... hurt?" Videl gasped slightly, grabbing his forearm.  
"No. I suppose you've been told that my brother-" Goten choked slightly and fought a fresh wave of grief.  
"Yes," Videl said softly. Goten mentally cursed himself for being insensitive. How could he grieve so badly when there was this one lying here, who was his wife, and was still full with his child? There was sorrow deeply ingrained into her voice, but Goten only nodded and sponged her forehead again.  
"That's why you're in charge."  
"I don't think so. You yourself said I was too much of an idiot to be anything of the sort," Goten insisted.  
"I didn't mean that. I think everyone always told you that because you are hotheaded, and we all know that, besides that, you have what it takes, and Gohan never did. We never wanted you to fight with your brother." Videl sounded more sad as she continued, but Goten shook his head, saying "I couldn't- I couldn't-"  
"Then if you feel you can't, do so anyway, and take it as a request from me, and you owe me no more in this life."  
"You're not going to die," Goten said.  
"Maybe not, maybe so; it's irrelevant. You are the last child of Goku, and that's what is important. You'll be able to do what Gohan never could, the one thing he wanted more than anything else in his life."  
"And... what's that?" Goten whispered, hesitant.  
"A home. He wanted a home, for all of us. He wanted what was rightfully ours. The reasons behind King Vegeta's actions will be forever shrouded in mystery, but they'll be irrelevant, because you have the strength of will to set it aside. This is your time, and you need to move now."  
"Sister-in-law, you are insane," Goten pleaded, but Videl shook her head and smiled at him.  
"I'm not insane. I speak truth." She paused for a long moment, and relaxed, and Goten could tell that this set of her pains had gone aside. "It's excruciating," she said in response to his unasked question.  
"Try this," Juuhachigou said, bringing a bowl. Videl sipped some of the broth, then reached for it in hunger. Goten took it then, and held it steady. "Slowly! Chew," The blond woman instructed her, and Videl made an effort to slow down. "If you make yourself sick then none will benefit."  
Goten held onto the bowl until she had drained it, and Juuhachigou took it away. Trunks came into the tent then with more fresh water, and it was put on to boil.  
"Men attending is bad luck, Goten," she said then.  
"I will be outside if you need me," Goten replied.  
Trunks was sitting near the entrance to the tent when Goten went outside. Inside the tent was nearly hot, but outside the mildly cold day and the harsh wind reasserted itself. Goten sat down beside Trunks, and looked at the ground.  
"You're shaking," Trunks said softly, and the kind tone in his voice made Goten shake worse.  
"I just feel... really helpless," Goten admitted. "What do they expect of me? I'll never be able to take the place of Gohan, much less my father. Is that what they really want from me? My father?"  
Trunks reached an arm around him and held him to ease his shaking. Goten breathed hard and struggled not to weep.

In the small hours of the morning there erupted a shrill cry from the tent, and Trunks opened his eyes to the sound, raising his chin from where it rested on Goten's head. Trunks blinked and glanced around in the darkness, straining to see in the light of the waning moon. There were men and women still at the communal fire, even, and though they had no food they filled themselves with hot water as they proposed a toast.  
Trunks sat up straight, his stirring bringing Goten around. Goten's head rose from his shoulder. "Trunks?"  
"Shh," Trunks told him, and after a moment Goten also heard the cry and found himself touched with the first smile since the cabin had gone up.  
"I'm an uncle..."  
The tent flap was pulled aside, and a feminine voice from within said, "The child is a girl and both are fine."  
Goten turned to Trunks as the flap dropped again, and said softly. "That food, that you were saving, it was for her?"  
Trunks nodded slightly, unwilling, and then said, "Once in such a year there was no food even in the city; no food for beggars to beg and no food for nobles to dine. It was in such a year that my mother gave birth to a small girl and nearly lost her life. I still call it a miracle that both survived."  
"And it was in such a year that I was born," Goten said, with a nod as if it were a full circle. "Only my mother was hardly so fortunate. And there were far more cases where the child died, here."  
"It is the same everywhere," Trunks agreed, then urged Goten to go tell those at the fire.  
"You saved my sister's life," Goten said. "I won't forget that." With that he rose and there came another cheer from the people, and Goten came back to sit by his sister's tent. After a moment there was once more movement, and Juuhachigou came out with a bundle and knealt beside Goten.  
"Lady Videl rests, but I thought you should meet the next addition to your family." With that the bundle was placed in his arms, and Goten froze when it squirmed slightly. Trunks reached over and pulled aside a part of the blanket.  
The face inside was a face that none could mistake for any other than a Son. The eyes were large and blinked up at Goten, dark meeting dark, and the fuzzy head was as dark as his.  
Goten was struck dumb.  
"And what is your name?" Trunks asked the child, as if indeed she understood.  
"Her mother has called her 'Pan'," was Juuhachigou's interjection.  
Goten was silent, meeting her gaze. For some reason, he could tell that this one was going to be a corker. Perhaps it was that one foot had kicked free from the constraining blanket, and had kicked him hard in the chest.  
After a while, Juuhachigou said that she must go back inside in the warmth, and Goten surrendered her reluctantly. Trunks looked at him critically when he was without the child, and Goten seemed.. smaller, sat dejected almost.  
"If her father could see her..." and Goten went to his tent without another word. Trunks looked up at the sky and said a small prayer, feeling a sense of calmness come to him now. After a time he rose and followed Goten. When he arrived in the tent Goten didn't respond to any words, his back turned toward the doorway. Trunks curled up against his back and was asleep once more.

But when morning arrived Goten was still there sleeping at Trunks' side, whereas he was usually up, and Trunks would have thought he would want to be up to see his niece. But when Trunks shook him gently, Goten only responded in a rough voice that he should be left alone. Trunks tarried in indecision, then finally rose and went to Videl.  
"Is Goten alright?" Videl asked, as Trunks tried to pry the baby's hand from his index finger.  
"That's what I wanted to say..." Trunks began. When he was finished Videl only nodded.  
"I'm sorry to trouble you," he said apologetically.  
"It is nothing. I will be up soon." Videl held her baby and looked into her face. Evidently she saw Gohan, because her eyes glistened slightly. "Make Goten eat whatever there is that might be eaten. Only let him sleep for a while. And he may need someone." Trunks nodded and left, finding their excuse for breakfast. When he brought some to Goten, the other commanded he set it aside. Trunks figured that only hunger would bring him to eat, and he did so. After a moment, he found himself sitting on the coverings and looking at the back of Goten's head.  
"Will you never leave me in peace?" Goten demanded suddenly.  
"Probably not," Trunks granted. "Goten, I was thinking..."  
"Well, and what do you trouble me with now?" Goten sounded irritated.  
Trunks opened his mouth, and then decided to keep to himself what he would have said. "Nothing."  
"Well, you bothered me enough to come and say it. What was it?" Goten turned his head enough to glare at him.  
"Just..." Trunks thought and substituted something. "It grows colder every day. Do you mind if I sleep with you at night?"  
Goten narrowed his eyes, and seemed to find it devoid of evil intent. He sounded almost like himself when he said, "As you will."  
"You should go see the child, by daylight. She needs to know you."  
"She will know me. And I have seen her. She looks like Gohan." But when speaking of Pan, Goten couldn't manage the rough tone he had taken with Trunks. "Leave me alone," Goten said, as though he knew his weaknesses were showing.  
Trunks went out and came back with the baby, and Goten was sitting up eating what Trunks had brought when he returned. As soon as Goten's eyes fell onto the bundle of blankets and baby, his eyes grew a little brighter. Trunks sat next to him, offering the child. Goten took her, as carefully as he would his own. She was calm in his arms, where she had fidgeted in Trunks' hold. Goten's foul disposition seemed to melt away until Trunks was required to return her. When he came back once more, Goten was as he had been, lying under his covers. But he wasn't angry now, he was mostly just unresponsive.  
Trunks sighed, rubbing absently at the bandage over his leg, where the wound was throbbing. It had been more superficial than it looked, but stretching the wounded skin still hurt. He instead climbed into bed with Goten, and since there was nothing to eat there was no reason for them to leave, even when Goten's friends came to talk to him. Trunks played "sleeping" and Goten told them to go away as well, in no uncertain terms.  
As the tent flap fell once more, Trunks opened his eyes and realized that the last hours of sunlight were fading. Goten hadn't spoken to him in hours. Trunks at last said, "You were going to bathe today."  
"Well, and I shall not," Goten said at last, seeming to be willfully contrary. It was dejection, not depression as of yet.  
"I know you're upset over Gohan," Trunks began, but couldn't think of a way to finish.  
"I'm totally useless," Goten said after a time. "If I couldn't even save him, then what good am I? I won't be able to fulfill Videl's wishes or Gohan's goals or my father's objectives; I don't understand why it's so important to us to go live in the city again. This is all I've ever known. They used to say to me that I wouldn't be able to understand, I was part of the first generation who knew only this forest."  
"If you set yourself to it, Goten, I know you could do whatever the people wished."  
"Leave me alone. I don't need your sympathy."  
"I refuse to let you sit in here. You do realize, do you not, that there probably will not be a day as warm as this for several months? You will freeze your fingers and toes off, and if you bathe now it will be longer before you have to do so." Trunks sat up, rolling Goten onto his side. Goten didn't really look at him. He looked sleepy and a little sick. Trunks wasn't thinking that it was biological illness.  
Trunks hauled him to his feet, since he was fully dressed anyway, and pulled him by the arm down to the river. Trunks looked out over it as he released Goten's arm. he heard a sof _whump!_ that was Goten falling onto the ground. He sat there and would have forever if allowed.  
Trunks looked around, and finally sighed. He reached down with one hand, touching Goten's chin. Goten looked up at him with inarticulately sad eyes. Trunks could see that if left alone he would most likely enter a state of depression that would do no one any good. When he was sure that there was no one around, he stripped to nearly nothing and did the same to Goten, receiving no help or hinderance. He pulled the dark-haired young man into the water with him, glad that at least he didn't put up a fight. Goten sank to a sitting position, mud or no, and his head bent toward the water. Trunks pulled him a little deeper, once again receiving no help dragging him, and then proceeded to wash Goten himself. Goten seemed a little lifeless, and sank against Trunks, face buried into his neck.  
Trunks' leg was hurting in the very cold water, and Goten shivered ceaselessly beside him, but he was careful. As his hands moved over Goten's back, the other looked up at him.  
"Why won't you leave me alone?"  
Trunks looked down into Goten's face, seeing a resigned expression, as though he knew he would have to function normally whether he would or no. Trunks held him close in the water, leaning down to kiss him gently on the lips. Goten was still at first as though unsure whether or not he would, even _could_ allow himself to be touched. After a moment he tilted his head up slightly, his arms going around Trunks as if to save his life. The Prince could feel the weight of his sadness, and wanted to cause him, just for a moment, to forget everything else.  
He pulled Goten up onto the bank to dry off, the sunlight's warmth counteracting the chill air, so they were about as cold as in the river. When Trunks wouldn't let Goten pull away, Goten at last took him by the hand and led him to a spot where there was grass, all touched by the sun and away from sight. They lay there together, Goten pressing his face against Trunks' chest.  
"I'm sorry..." Goten began. "I don't mean to push you away.." His voice never raised above a whisper as he said it.  
"I'd forgive you anything, even if you did, Goten... I love you..." Trunks wasn't quite sure at first that he had said it aloud, but when Goten's large eyes turned up to him he realized it.  
"You do?" His voice was nearly incredulous, and it hurt Trunks a little that he found it so hard to believe.  
He only nodded, and watched as Goten's eyes closed, and he shook a little more than from just the cold. Even though they lay together, Goten seemed to reach out to him only now, when his arms went around Trunks, holding onto him.  
"Would you do something for me?" Goten asked after a time, his eyes remaining closed, until Trunks withheld his reply. When his eyes opened, Trunks nodded. "I want... would you... touch me? The way you did before?" Goten's voice was small, but his eyes pleaded into Trunks' blue ones, and the Prince could do nothing but nod.  
Goten tilted his face upward, meeting Trunks' mouth, and as hands moved over him, all Goten did was shiver and cling tighter. Trunks' breath caught in his throat at the speed with which Goten responded to his movements, quickly hardening, if he hadn't from the cold. What little that remained of their clothing was tossed aside as quickly as shaking hands could manage. This passion was more tender than what might have passed before then, and it had a kind of finality.  
Goten pressed himself tightly to Trunks, allowing himself to be moved over, pressed against the soft grass. The heat from Trunks' body warmed him, left him sweating. As they moved against each other, breathing and heartbeats sped up to match the hunger of their touch. Their bodies ground together with their need, escalating it, every motion pure pleasure.  
Trunks' hand moved down along Goten's torso, feeling the muscles in his stomach tense at the touch, his hand brushing back upward over the other's side. Goten's mouth still had that incredible flavor, making it so that one kiss was never enough, he could barely stand to not have his mouth on him. Trunks' mouth moved down along his jaw, his throat, tasting and leaving light bite marks on his skin, and Goten's whole body seemed to embrace him as he moved, kissing his chest lightly, mouth closing over a hardened nipple. Goten was silent, only his breathing giving him away.  
Goten's entire body was a little darker than Trunks' and tasted like salt and river water. Trunks' eyes flicked up toward his, and as he moved down, he took the other's erection into his mouth, seeing his love's head drop back as he fought to breathe without crying out. The Prince prayed that he would be able to please him, not exactly having done this before, or ever heard of it, or... he took Goten deep into his mouth, nearly deep throating him as his tongue moved over and around him, hearing him gasp for air.  
A soft groan hit open air, as Goten struggled to remain still. Trunks swallowed several times, his throat tightening around Goten's length as he did. He set his face, concentrating on nothing but Goten, and reaching up, sliding two fingers into him. Goten gasped as it happened, not responding to the pain, as it was masked by pleasure. Trunks found a spot within him that made him cry out, a gasp that melted into a moan. Goten's hips arched off of the ground, nearly gagging Trunks, who held him still and then deep-throated him until he cried out, still stretching him and stroking that sensitive place on his inner walls.  
Trunks' name passed the other's lips, and as he came he repeated it, his entire body snapping tense and then uncoiling as the waves of pleasure passed over him and rocked him. Trunks swallowed hard again, his fingers continuing to fondle that one spot in him, gathering an exquisite feeling at the base of his spine.  
Goten panted, and Trunks moved up to kiss him again, delving deeply into his velveteen mouth. Goten's brow furrowed as he returned the kiss, his tongue rimming Trunks' mouth and tasting the bittersweet salt taste that accompanied his mouth now. Trunks shifted against him, and Goten could feel that he was still very aroused; the hardness pressed into the sensitive part of his thigh and moved against him almost pleadingly. Goten opened his eyes, seeing Trunks' baby-blue gaze fastened to him.  
_Oh, Trunks..._ After such an incredible experience, Goten wanted to return the sensations, and make the purple-haired one feel as he had. He shifted his hips against Trunks, legs wrapping around him as Trunks moaned softly. It was taken as it had been intended, and Trunks' arms around him tightened as he entered him, one smooth thrust bringing a sound from Goten's throat. It was mixed agony and need, but as Trunks thrust into him again, he found that spot and the next sound was of pure bliss as Goten's hips met his again, tightening around him the longer they moved together. Trunks groaned softly and pushed into him as he pressed him into the grass, holding Goten there until he came, his body melting into the one beneath him.  
Goten was so silent, too silent. But after he had caught his breath he kissed Trunks gently.  
Trunks opened his eyes to look into Goten's dark gaze, which was muted with some strange confusion of emotion; quite different than the look of despair he had worn before. Trunks waited for Goten to say something, but he didn't, remaining quiet there with him for longer than his mind could later recall.

There arrived a messenger to the camp one day; he wore the Royal insignia, and his steed was the very white horse that Trunks had prized when he went on trips before the whole business had started. He looked very important despite his surroundings.  
There was curious talk as he stood at the edge of the camp, silent. After a while, Goten heard it and came out, holding the baby. Videl was able to rise on her own now, and followed him. At the edge of the crowd Goten handed Pan back to her mother and approached the messenger. "Good day to you," he said at last.  
The man blinked at him as though unwilling to take him for the leader, but since none would speak to him before that, he at last said, "I come bearing a message."  
"Who for?"  
"Prince Trunks."  
There were various murmurs of "I told you so," among the crowd, and Goten made a gesture behind his back for someone to go find him. Trunks came bearing two large logs, one on either shoulder. He saw the crowd and dropped one by the fire, and since he had been sent to refuel the fire in the first place he tossed the second onto the fire, sending up a shower of sparks, grabbing a cloth someone handed him to wipe the sweat from his face.  
"What is this?" Trunks asked, eyeing the messenger.  
The man on the horse got down and dropped to one knee, arm across his chest in a gesture of homage.  
"Get up," Trunks said in irritation, but the man hesitated, and did not obey. He handed up a paper.  
"Ouji-sama, a letter from your mother, the Queen Mother."  
"Whassa Queen Mother?" Goten muttered.  
"There is no King, so she is not Queen," Trunks explained distractedly as he opened the letter. As he finished and looked down again, the man handed up a parchment, something that looked like a flyer.  
Trunks opened it, and cursed once he'd read it. "And tell me, is there word from my sister?"  
"No sir," the man replied. Trunks said something under his breath and crumpled up the second paper to throw on the ground at his feet.  
"Well, and you tell the Queen Mother that I will not go back!"  
"Sir... your mother instructed me to inform you that if you do not return home the event will come to pass on the third day of the month." He never looked up.  
"Damnation! And I suppose she knew I'd given my word, as well?!"  
The man appeared cowed at Trunks' directionless anger, only bowing his head lower and saying "...Sir...?"  
Goten stared at Trunks as the slightly older teen flushed with anger.  
"You may go!"  
"And what say you to the Queen Mother?"  
"You may _go!_"  
"Sir, I was instructed to leave the horse for you!" The messenger replied with another nearly grovelling bow before taking off on foot, running into the forest. Trunks paid the man no heed, or else wouldn't have allowed him to take off into the forest where he could get totally lost.  
Goten asked with a blink, "Trunks? What.." Something about the anger in his lover's expression kept him from finishing the question. The baby started to cry into the quiet, and when she did the people mulled about in conversation as they headed for wherever they'd been before.  
Videl rocked the baby against her as she watched the two young men. Trunks stalked to the fire and threw the letter into the blaze, still looking furious. Goten looked totally lost, his face knit into concern and a little fear. He moved over and picked up the paper. It bore writing done in fancy inks, and Goten could make neither heads nor tails of it, wishing once again as he had since the day before the baby was born that Gohan was there to ask.  
"Trunks, what is this?" Goten asked, bringing the paper to him, having smoothed out the wrinkles. Trunks cast a look at it and then ripped it up into little shreds and let them flutter to the ground. He glared at Goten as though expecting to be challenged, but at last was able to bring himself together long enough to say, "It is a _wedding_ announcement," he growled. "My sister is to be wed to some fat pig from another country unless _I_ show up at the castle before the month's end!"  
Goten was struck. "And..."  
"And I as well as gave her my word that I wouldn't let this happen to her! Even if I hadn't, I couldn't allow it to happen; this is used as leverage against me!" Trunks' voice was raised to the level that everyone in the camp now knew what had transpired. "There are days when I swear to god my mother is more cold-blooded than my father ever was, the devil take him both!"  
Goten blinked as Trunks clapped a hand over his own mouth, not understanding that direct invocation of god was a "very bad thing." Trunks turned in disgust and stalked into the tent he shared with Goten, searching through the few belongings he'd aquired during his stay.  
Videl touched Goten on the shoulder, and when he looked at her, her gaze showed sympathy, and maybe...  
"How much do you know, sister?"  
"There are those who say that that which a woman knows should never be revealed... for once reason or another." Goten dropped onto a log, looking up at Videl holding the baby. She presented quite a picture; she was back to nearly her normal size and looked too young to be a mother. She handed the baby down to Goten and went quietly back to her tent.  
Pan recognized Goten. She reached out and touched her face with chubby little hands and laughed her meaningless laugh, and Goten was comforted that no matter what this child would grow and be happy and healthy. Being an uncle helped him greatly with the loss of Gohan. Maybe his sister knew that.  
People came around; one of the animals, a cow or some such had died of old age, and was being cooked for dinner. People came to sit around the fire and tell stories as they would on hot summer nights, toasting each other with hot water to avoid the cold. Goten handed Pan off to Marron, who had experience with such things, and the baby was given a little broth to drink before taken to someone else, as all had turns babysitting when there was a baby in the camp.  
Goten got up and fed the horses, stopping to consider Trunks' white mount as it snuffled and ate its share. A beast of its quality he had never before seen, and he stopped to pat its head, seeing its dark eyes blink at him. Somehow it just made him sad to see it standing there, and he turned and left the horses to their meal.  
Goten wandered, for a long time, until it became so late night that those who were still up chastised Goten for being up when he needed to be clear-headed in the daytime. After fighting off a yawn, Goten sheepishly acknowledged and went into his tent. He was thinking how everyone still seemed happy and as healthy as they ever got, even though Gohan was gone. They even respected him, to a degree.  
As he stood upright, he paused and took in the sight of Trunks, asleep on the pile of furs and blankets they shared, Pan just as asleep in the crook of one arm. Goten couldn't help but smile to himself, and sat down, building up the fire a bit more and taking a drink of water for himself.  
"Goten?" Trunks sounded sleepy.  
"I'm here."  
"I wondered when you would be." Trunks smiled slightly at him, and raised himself slowly while rocking the baby to keep her asleep. Pan stretched and yawned, and then curled back within the blanket her mother had made for her and was still again.  
There was silence between them for a long time, both of them watching the dark-haired girl. After a few minutes, Goten raised his head to find Trunks already watching him again.  
"I'm sorry," Trunks said.  
"Yeah, well..." Goten said, taking another drink of water as a distraction, staring into the blue licks of flame at the bottom of his fire. After a minute he shrugged, even though he didn't feel so nonchalant.  
"I leave tomorrow," Trunks told him after another moment of attempting to gauge his reaction.  
"It's not fair, dammit!" Goten said, and Trunks motioned for him to lower his voice.  
"I know... I know it's not." Trunks swallowed hard, and looked down as well. "But I will see you again."  
"Do you promise?" Goten asked, head raising slightly although he didn't look at his lover.  
"We will," Trunks responded.  
"I said, 'do you promise'?" Goten said, head moving up now and his gaze holding Trunks'. Trunks moved to lay the baby onto the blanket that he sat on, and moved over to take Goten by the shoulders.  
"I do promise; we will see each other again."  
"What aren't you telling me?"  
"Just..." Trunks sighed and took another breath to try again. "Things will never be the same for us. I'm sorry, but I don't see how they could be. Knowing my mother, she'll hold the coronation ceremony as soon as I return, and when I'm King, it's all over, everything." Trunks sounded dejected, and Goten took a breath to protest.  
"No, it doesn't have to be! Please, Trunks... after everything else, I don't want to be without you. Tell me there's _some_ way we can be together!" He tried to keep his voice even and calm, but he was rapidly losing his cool, as wetness came into his eyes.  
Trunks' response was a kiss, and after a heartbeat Goten was relaxed against him, and Trunks stroked his dark head and was silent. Goten's hand fisted in his clothing, and he felt as though he were being rocked gently. It might have been the case.  
"Run away, Trunks... come back here."  
"These places are known," was the practical reply.  
"But we don't have to stay here."  
"It would be for the best if we could forget..."  
"No!" Goten insisted, pushing him off and leaping to his feet. "I'll _never_ forget, I don't _want_ to forget!"  
"Hush!" Trunks told him as the baby woke and began to whimper. He picked her up and rocked her as he had Goten a moment before. "I would not forget you if I wanted to, and you know it very well. I said, 'it would be best'..."  
"I didn't think I would hear that from you." Goten said, lowering his gaze. "I still don't understand something, Trunks. If you are who you are, then why... me?" His voice was a whisper.  
"How do you propose to explain who you are to fall in love with?" Trunks asked faintly, rocking the baby slowly as he stared into the fire. Goten watched him with a strange feeling in his chest; even if this were the last time he were to see Trunks, their relationship still had a sense of completion. They loved each other and had had an endless vacation together. The only bad part of the story was the apparent end.  
After the fire began to burn low, Trunks and Goten held the baby between them and remained close that night.


	5. Chapter 5

The Best of Both Worlds, part 5  
By: Chocolate-chan

Trunks bathed in the river in the early morning while it was still freezing cold, but he wanted to leave the camp before he became even more confused than he already was. There were a few things he had been given; and interesting card deck and instructions on its use from the good ol' boys, Osamu and Touya, and a wooden flute from Marron, whom he had spent time with over meals and discussed music with. Trunks thrust these into his pockets and turned to where Goten slept with his baby niece. He pulled the blanket closely over them, stoking the fire so that it would hold out until what was officially morning.  
Goten's face was very peaceful, and Trunks spent a moment memorizing his face and recalling the darkness of his eyes. Goten shifted as though he sensed it, and Trunks leaned over, whispering into his ear briefly. Goten settled down, and reluctantly Trunks turned to leave the tent.  
He moved over to where his white horse stood, near the tent, munching on the grass. "How have you been, girl?" Trunks asked, finger-combing the mane as she had always liked. "We'll be taking another trip now, won't we." Trunks went and retrieved the falcon from its perch, whispering to it, "Go home." When he launched the bird into flight, it wheeled around in the sky and took off in the direction that Trunks knew the castle to be.  
"Trunks-kun," came a voice.  
Trunks turned quickly. "Lady Videl, you shouldn't be out in this cold."  
"Is Pan with Goten?"  
"Yes ma'am." Videl wrapped a blanket tighter about herself and came to stand in front of him, looking up into his face.  
"You're a good boy, Trunks." She smiled at him. "You treat everyone respectfully, and that's an exceptional thing for someone of your background. I feel as though I would if I were losing Goten now."  
"Goten will take good care of you," Trunks assured her. "And he loves his little niece dearly."  
"I know I will never be able to repay you. You saved my life and very likely the life of my child with your gift of food, and now that she is born we will be able to find a way among the whole of us. And, in a less solid but equally substantial way, you saved Goten. He would be very bad off now if it weren't for whatever you did for him after my husband died."  
It was too dark for Videl to see Trunks blush, and she continued without a beat, "Here. A small present. You can probably get better in the city..."  
Trunks felt something thrust into his hands, and felt out its shape to discover that it was gloves. "I'll wear them until they are rags," Trunks said, pulling them on, grateful for them in the cold morning.  
"Don't climb any mountains without them," Videl teased.  
"I won't be climbing any mountains until I am climbing them with Goten beside me," Trunks told her softly, not caring if she knew the depth of their relationship or no. "As the first mountain I climbed was with him."  
"You need to go, and see well to that sister of yours, as Goten has always seen well to me." Videl patted his horse gently and moved off into the haze of tents and early morning mist.

Trunks pulled the hood of the cloak up over his head and moved off through the forest. He had been taught the paths like the hairs on his head, and set his horse off at a fair clip, coming upon the edge of the forest as the sun crested the high hills.  
He was in the gate of the city by the time the sun no longer touched the far-off earth, moving through and attracting some odd looks for his fine mount and tattered cloak. There was much noise of people even now in the mornings, and Trunks found himself wishing once more for the quiet of the forest.  
_What was it that made me leave here in the first place? I would not miss the forest so greatly had I never seen it. Nor Goten._ As Trunks thought back, all that came to mind was the image of Goten's smiling face, and a hand extended to him.  
_"There's a place, you know, for people like you!"  
Goten, just because there is a place doesn't mean that I know it... and I start to doubt that I ever will._  
Trunks moved close to the castle and remained unchallenged until he reached the courtyard and tried to enter the inner buildings. When he pulled aside his cloak and revealed his face, the guards gasped and scrambled to let him in.  
Trunks headed first for the kitchen, and when he arrived he took fruit and turned to go out.  
His mother sat at the table.  
"I knew you would come," was what she said. "For your sister's sake."  
"I am here. By your dictated terms, Bra is no longer required to marry the weasel."  
"Weasel?" His mother raised a fine eyebrow. "I'll have you know that Prince Phillip comes from a very good family."  
"And what is that to me?" Trunks asked, taking a bite of an apple. By the expression on his mother's face, Trunks could tell he had forgotten his place, but she let him know with her gaze and did not address it.  
"I don't understand why you left, Trunks," his mother said. "I was so worried about you!"  
"Mother, I am a grown man."  
"You are nearly eighteen. I hardly call that grown."  
"Well, it is, and there are people who support mothers and fathers and their own children at sixteen and such."  
"Those people are not the soon-to-be king of this country," his mother informed him with an icy voice. Trunks made no reply, looking for an excuse to leave. "I heard you joined up with those dirty bandits that live in the forest. What shame you bring to our family!" Bulma's eyes narrowed on him, and Trunks shifted uncomfortably in place.  
"I have done nothing that would put the reputation or honor of this family at stake, mother, rest assured. You taught me better than that."  
"I was afraid, when you just left without a word, that you might have taken up with a loose woman, or done things..."  
"I _did_ nothing, mother!" Trunks insisted, fighting her former ice with his impatient fire.  
"Watch your tongue," Bulma warned him. "Can a mother no longer be concerned for her son?"  
"She may, but he must be allowed to be a man." Trunks used it as a non-offensive hint that she babied him.  
"He must first _behave_ as a man would behave, and stay to his responsibilities!" Bulma watched Trunks, who was unaware that his face had fallen in thought. "You have taken up with someone, haven't you."  
"What?" Trunks' voice sharpened as he turned to go, tossing an apple core aside. "Mother, don't be ridiculous. I don't want the woman I've got, why would I bring more upon myself?"  
"Whatever relationships you have formed, see that they have parted for good. I will not have my son become trash."  
"Let me tell you something, mother," Trunks said as he spun back to her, "Those people I was with are kind and decent people, and they live more honestly and honorably than our family has in generations!"  
Bulma slapped his face on one side, leaving his cheek burning. "And _that_ for your unfilial conduct! I pray you never say such for your sister's ears. They are nothing, and you would do well to remember that."  
"Enough of this, mother. I depart."  
"You meet your bride at noon."  
Trunks brought himself up short at the doorway, and then uttered a cry of disgust and stalked out. He climbed to the highest tower at a run to rid himself of his compulsive anger, and caught the falcon as it approached. The bird landed on his hand and his glove resisted tearing. "Good job, Lady Videl."  
With the falcon in hand, Trunks climbed back down the stairs and came to Bra's rooms, hesitating to wake her. Bra flung her door open at last, in her robe, looking about to chew someone out. "Nii-chan!" she cried when she recognized him, and Trunks held the bird high to return her hug. It fluttered off toward its familiar perch, and he was able to use both hands to lift his sister and give her a hug.  
"You were gone for so long!"  
"How long was I gone?" Trunks inquired.  
"A month and a fortnight; but you're _home_ now!" Bra smiled up at him and pulled him into her room.  
Trunks sank into her couch as she put her falcon in its cage. "I thought she flew away," Bra told him.  
"I caught her. She fed me and many others for quite a while."  
"Such a good girl!" Bra praised it, tipping treats into its cage.  
"And now you won't have to marry a weasel, imouto-chan."  
"I still have to marry," Bra said.  
"Nan desu ka?"  
"Mother said that you would come home, and then we would hold a ball. The one that I liked who attended would be my husband." Bra looked down into the plant she arranged as she said it.  
Trunks grew angry. "Mother-!"  
"Hush, O-nii-chan. I have my brother back." Bra looked up at him and smiled, and Trunks was quiet for her sake.  
"Tell me about your time, brother," Bra said, seating herself with her head laying against his arm.  
"Mother would not be happy."  
"You smell strange." Bra turned and buried her face into his chest. "I'd say you were dirty, but you don't smell _bad..._"  
"What do I smell of, then?" Trunks asked in amusement.  
"You smell of plants and cookfire smoke. Don't take this the wrong way, but you smell like a _man_."  
"Nani?" Trunks asked, raising an eyebrow.  
"I didn't really think of it before, but father used to smell that way as well, like he didn't use the right soap. He smelled like a person, not a flowery soap. The people that pass me when I go to market reek of such. So. Tell me where you have been."  
"Mother has already warned me to watch my mouth around you."  
"The hell with mother," Bra said. "I think if you were happy where you were, she should have left you alone."  
"I thought many times of coming and bringing you out with me," Trunks told her. "I played, and the work to survive was hard, but I was never so happy and so filled with a purpose. And when there was no work there were flowers and trees all around and the people were happy and loved who they chose." A lump crept into Trunks' throat, but Bra regarded him with wide eyes.  
"Such a place must be paradise," Bra whispered. For Trunks, living his pain was worth the expression on her face. "Tell me more, please?" And Trunks told her the parts that could be told, and the parts that didn't hurt, and Bra curled up in his lap as she had when she was younger and listened to him.

Trunks scheduled a large load of food to be taken to the forest as he had made word to his lover before leaving, and it was put in a place and watched. The scout came back and said that a young man carrying a baby had come upon it and brought people from the camp nearby to take it. Trunks had been careful about his placement.  
Princess Antoinette had shoulder-length brown hair with a crimp, and hazel eyes that sparkled brightly with her almost constant laughter and blushing. She was, as Trunks came to discover, a silly air-brained woman from a line of silly women, in a country of silly women, from a world of them. Trunks had never been over-keen on women, as they were so different from him, but he had never had any chance to question his sexuality before he met Goten, and knew for a fact that he didn't _dis_like women. Still, this princess was a twit. A lovely twit.  
Bulma grew quite confident with her choice when Trunks failed to try to kill Antoinette upon their first meeting. He spoke to her as little as possible, wondering if he could do so for another thirty years, which would be a healthy and very long life span.  
When he saw her coming, Trunks ran for the document room, and buried himself into the histories of the country. If she saw him she followed but grew quickly bored of the large room of boring documentations of sales and other such things in the castle and the city.  
Trunks found a document with the name "Goku" on it, and a map attached. He pulled all of the files that appeared to be related and put them in a box to take to his room, since the guards wanted to lock up. Trunks climbed the stairs and lay on his bed, trying to make sense of the odd legal language in the paper. Suddenly a knock sounded on his door.  
"You may enter," Trunks called disinterestedly.  
"Prince Trunks," Antoinette said, and giggled, probably at the prospect of being in a prince's room.  
"Oh. Princess Antoinette. Hello." Trunks said. "Forgive me for not jumping to seat you; I am tired. There is a chair somewhere if you wish; you may find it."  
"You are quite, ah," she giggled. "Informal."  
"You shall get used to it, I suppose."  
"Your mother suggested that I come. She thinks you and I should get to know each other better."  
"Will we not have eternity to get to know each other?" Kings and Queens were buried side by side.  
She giggled. "Well, if you are tired, this is perfect. I know I am not an impressive enough wife, but there is one thing I do well above all others of my kingdom."  
"And that is?" Trunks asked.  
Antoinette pulled a small harp from behind her back. "I play. Perhaps I could play for you. I used to play for the King my father when he couldn't sleep for troubles in his kingdom."  
"You may feel free; though I doubt I will sleep for I am working."  
Antoinette seated herself at a small chair near his bed and began to play. And it was true, what they said; her melody was beautiful, and unfamiliar to Trunks. He set the paper aside for a moment, and blinked.  
"Prince Trunks?"  
Okay, so this was a very long blink. Trunks opened his eyes. "I slept?"  
"You were saying, 'Goten.' What is that?"  
"Please leave me, Princess."  
"You didn't like my playing?" Antoinette seemed upset, as Trunks rose to escort her to the door.  
"I... Your playing is very lovely indeed, Princess. However, I am tired and will provide you poor company. I suppose I shall see you at next meal."  
"I..." she ruined it by giggling. "I shall see you then, Prince Trunks." She curtsied and left his rooms.  
Trunks sighed and sat back upon his bed, thinking of Goten again. He had tried to resist thoughts of him all the day, but when daytime hours eclipsed he was left with a cold feeling that seeped through the stones of the castle and into his heart and body as he pulled his blankets from his bed and wrapped himself up tightly to hoard warmth. But no matter how he tried the warmest thing about him was the tear that he wiped from his face.

There was a man in Trunks' dreams that night, one that he could hardly recall by morning.  
As a small child, Trunks had sat often outside the throne room and waited for the time when his father would leave to do whatever it was he did in the late day, be it working out, meditating, or simply eating and then going to sleep early. The guests came by and tipped their hats and curtsied if they recognized him, and simply smiled if they didn't.  
There was one day, and he was one of the latter. He was kept waiting for longer than Trunks had ever seen a petitioner, even, stand waiting.  
"O-kyaku-san, why do _you_ come here?" Trunks asked, looking the man over in curiosity. He had dark eyes and hair.  
"My family is in trouble. We wish to reconcile with King Vegeta." he had a kind face and he smiled at Trunks.  
"My father doesn't make people wait so much."  
"You are the prince?" He asked, surprised, and Trunks nodded. The man sat down by him. "I didn't think the prince would be such a handsome little man." Trunks had been proud and smiled. "I have a brother nearly your age. I bet you would be good friends. You seem like a nice boy." The man offered him a cookie. "I was saving this for my brother, but I can get more. It's from the kitchens."  
"Wow, I'm not s'posta have these before dinner. Kaa-san says," Trunks said as he wolfed down the cookie.  
"It'll be out secret," he said with a smile. "My name is Gohan-"  
"Gohan!" Trunks sat up in his bed, wide awake, blanket twisted around him. The realization must have shocked his consciousness into working order, he thought with a chuckle.  
He remembered that the guards had announced him with cold expressions, and he had come out a few minutes later, looking upset. Trunks had remained sitting by a suit of armor in the hallway, and as the next petitioner was announced, Gohan came past him. "Bye!" Trunks had piped.  
Gohan had paused upon noticing him there again, and stopped. Magically, he came forth with another cookie for the boy. "You grow up and be a _good_ strong boy, you hear? You're quite lucky to live here in the palace." Gohan had patted him on the head, and Trunks had endured it because the man had been nice.  
"You!" His mother's voice had come up the hallway. "Who are you?"  
Gohan had bowed respectfully and introduced himself as Son Gohan.  
"I know of your like. Stay away from my son." Bulma had waited, guards coming to life behind her as Gohan smiled slightly at Trunks and left. Trunks had been unable to get his mother to explain why the man was 'bad.'  
"Wait for your father," she instructed him. When his father had at last come out, Trunks had leapt up and caught at his hand, laughing as he trailed closely behind him and reached to tug at his fingers.  
"Tou-san! You're out! What'll we do today? Meditate? We meditate on this day-"  
"Leave me be, boy," his father had responded in a distracted voice. Trunks, hurt, had gone on his way but the next day waited as usual and was allowed to tag along with his father again.  
"Wow," Trunks said to himself as he lit a candle and sat in its feeble glow. "That was really Gohan... then he knew who I was the whole time. Why was father so distracted the day that he came?" His musings got him nowhere, and after a while Trunks went hunting more candles and set up a station from which to read the papers he had rescued.  
As he became more fluent with the old legal language, he was able to find the facts in the paper, and the map confirmed it all.  
"Good holy saint Abraham, they took this land from the people... and built the _castle_ on it!"  
Trunks pulled through some of the other papers and found that the previous castle had been destroyed by the attacking armies that continually swarmed over the resource-rich soil. The castle had been built within six years preceding his own birth.  
"So all those people that I met... their families lived _here_ before, and the royal family took their land for this castle! No wonder Goku held a grudge!" Trunks wondered at the audacity of the nobles aloud to himself before he started to feel very foolish for talking to himself.  
Trunks pulled out a paper and a quill, pulled his gloves on against the chill, and dipped the quill in the ink jar, swirling it around in thought. After a long hesitation, he phrased everything carefully in his mind for the proclamations he hoped to make without his mother knowing until too late, then put the quill to the parchment and wrote.

Trunks was in the throne room one day with the Princess Antoinette, who had come to play for him more often as he said he liked her songs. This time his sister, who loved music, was there with the wooden flute that Marron had made and given to Trunks before he left the camp. Bra was delighted with the simple instrument, and since she had learned several simple songs on it, Trunks had given it to her. So when she heard how often Trunks' fiancee came to play for him, she came as well.  
That was one good thing about Antoinette; she liked Bra. Trunks listened to the two and stared out the window.  
Trunks sat on the throne or wandered as the need took him, feeling uncomfortable but sleepy until the guards came and announced an unknown visitor.  
"Good day to you, Prince," came the voice. Trunks was looking out the window at the time, but Princesses Antoinette and Bra had stopped in their music and he still didn't turn.  
"Princess Antoinette, imouto-chan, please leave me be briefly."  
"As you will, Prince Trunks," Antoinette said with a small curtsy that he heard but did not see, and Bra hugged him from behind, saying, "I go falconing this afternoon and will not see you until after dinner, so you be good, Nii-chan."  
"Of course, sister."  
Trunks closed his eyes and listened as the silence stretched in the throne room.  
"You look well, Trunks."  
"Why did you come here, Goten?" Trunks knew his voice was weak, but he couldn't help it.  
"I'm not sure. For one thing, duty called upon me to do so, but it didn't have to be me who came here."  
"I assume then that my proclamation was delivered to you."  
"You offered everyone in the camp homes within the city and formal apologies for the actions of the royal family. How could I not listen to that?" Goten was quiet for a long moment afterwards. Trunks didn't even turn to look at him, and his voice sounded so hollow. _You were right. Maybe things will never be the same._ "She's lovely, Trunks."  
"I don't like her."  
"You don't like your sister?"  
"You meant my sister. I spoke of my arranged marriage. I do not like her. But I am pleased you think well on my sister. She is a great source of happiness for me."  
"Sisters are that," Goten said. "And nieces," as an afterthought. But Trunks could hear pain in his voice. _Arranged marriage..._  
"On behalf of the people I represent, we accept your apologies and your offer of homes."  
"Good, my mother nearly took my head off over it."  
Goten was silent, but footsteps drew very slowly closer.  
"I am a poor prince. I recall a time that Gohan came here, and he was treated very badly. I don't understand why things are the way they are, only they are so. Do you understand?" Trunks' voice asked for acceptance of his words.  
Goten hesitated. "What is this you say?"  
"Goten..." Trunks took a deep breath that felt as though it would never be deep enough. "Our time is past. We both have lives to live, and they won't work together, no matter how we try. And besides that fact..."  
"Yes?" Goten asked in a whisper. "Well, and spit it out."  
"I don't love you, Goten. I can't."  
Goten was more silent than silent should be. "I don't believe you," he said at last. "You don't even look at me."  
Trunks turned and looked at him, knowing it was the biggest mistake. He was shocked into silence for a moment. Goten's clothes were nicer than he had seen the young man ever previously wear, but otherwise it was _him_, broad and dark and beautiful as he had ever been, and Trunks found it hard to look into his eyes and say "I don't love you."  
"..." Goten was now silent, and his face went pale.  
"You need to go," Trunks whispered.  
"I don't believe you." Goten said this roughly, as though pushing past his shock and pain.  
"It's true," Trunks insisted softly.  
"You're _lying_." He drew close, walking up to Trunks where a whisper had the full impact of communication on every level. "We kissed. You _touched_ me. I could see it in your eyes when we made love."  
Trunks closed his eyes at that and dropped his chin.  
"Dammit, I know you _feel_!" Goten reached out and caught his arm and pulled him close, almost touching. "Why is she making you say this?"  
Goten was more clever than any gave him the credit for. He had known right away.  
"When she heard what I'd done she told me that I had better move on quickly. If I don't she will make me regret it. Mother is good at that. So I will marry this sniveling, giggling princess and fantasize about you for the rest of my life."  
"Why should anyone be forced to do so?" Goten asked.  
"Why don't you believe me?"  
"You told me that you would not forget me, even if you wanted to. And so you could not forget that you love me... or that I love you."  
"Do you, Goten?"  
"You'd better damn well believe I do." Goten's hand shifted around his. "I missed you like crazy, too."  
"Don't do this to me, Goten..."  
"I don't know how to or how not to."  
"It's true. I love you and I always will. I'm sorry I had to say that I didn't. Accept that I love you, but I have a duty to my family. Now, _go_, please. You have a sister and a niece, and they need you as my family needs me."  
"I won't leave you, ever. I won't leave you when you're so totally miserable." Goten reached a hand to his chin and pulled his face to meet his gaze. Neither of them could quite recall the other's eyes being so vivid.  
"And I'm selfish as well; _I_ need _you_."  
Trunks acted on the impulse that came from his heart; he pulled Goten to him and kissed him, slowly, lips lingering against his before he slid his tongue into Goten's mouth, tasting him with great hunger, the intensity making his entire body ache as Goten melted into him, returning his kiss.  
"I always knew you were weak."  
Trunks broke from Goten, the dark-haired boy remaining behind him.  
Bulma emerged from behind a draping curtain on one side of the chamber, looking regal and sharp as a sword.  
"Mother. What are you speaking of?"  
"You are like your father. He was weak. He lacked the strength of convictions. I once told one that I loved goodbye when I was to be wed to your father. And he wasn't loyal; like you he laid in a bed of dogs. Fortunately, he emerged without fleas through my efforts."  
Goten was still close to Trunks, holding onto his hand, still standing where he had pressed against Trunks' chest for the kiss. Bulma approached them as she spoke, and suddenly reached out to seize Goten's chin in one hand, pulling him to where she could see him.  
"You, boy... you look like that filthy father of yours."  
Trunks could tell Goten was pressed not to say something in return.  
"Mother, why do you hate them so much?"  
"Hate them?" Bulma appeared surprised. She released Goten, nearly flinging him away. "They are nothing to me. But when your weak idiot of a father took one of them to his bed, a man no less... This one's idiot useless father no less!" she did indeed look furious as she recalled.  
Trunks blinked, mouth slightly agape as he looked at her.  
"After everything I'd been forced to sacrifice, he chooses the lowest person on the earth, the dirtiest peasant that walked upon land and decided to fall in love!" Bulma's eyes were blue flame. She glared at Goten as if he were the source of her entire anger. "When I was to choose the site for the castle, I rid the city of him and his kind, but still his children continue to plague me! They corrupt _my_ children with their pettiness, and all I wish is for them to disappear!"  
"How.. you made everything look as though he had done it." Trunks' mind was totally blank.  
"Of course! No one would pay attention to the Queen; I was the power behind your father. I forced him to do as I said; I played everything against him, including myself, peasants, these people, even you children. He would have brought us all down if he were allowed to do as he pleased. Their people came here time and again, nearly every year to make a reconciliation, but there was none to be made! They were gone, and that was my goal!"  
Goten gathered his wits. "You made my family miserable! So many people have died because of you! That's _not_ a good enough answer!"  
"Even the order upon capture..." Trunks whispered.  
"What?" Goten asked.  
"The standing order for anyone of your group that was captured was on-the-spot execution." Trunks told him.  
Goten was pale, and then flushed. "Even without that, what you did caused the death of my father, who was wronged, my mother who never hurt anyone ever, even my brother who lived his life in over his head." Trunks did not dispute the words and there they stood.  
"If you are all that is left of your line, then I should just execute you and get it over with." The former mask of the cold ruler had slipped over her face once more.  
"Touch him and I _will_ kill you," Trunks said in his anger, though he knew he could never kill his mother, and she knew it.  
"You would and could not. I understand that the only thing of this life that concerns you is your sister, but you still would not hurt me. As I have said, you are weak as was your father." The Queen Mother was unconcerned.  
Trunks felt sick to his stomach.  
"You, Trunks. You have always done as I told you, and it never hurt you a bit, did it? You were such a good boy growing up; perfect and polite, and you always listened to your mother. Your father wasn't a very good father to you; he feared growing attached to you because then I would use you against him. He loved his children and the last thing he wanted to do was see them hurt. Then one day the limit fell on him."  
"What... what did you do?" Trunks asked, his voice so rough he didn't recognize it.  
"It was nothing I did. He committed suicide himself, obtaining poison from an unknown apothcary and having it prepared in his food. He slipped away before any were aware. It was the most noble act he ever performed, an attempt to protect his children from manipulation. But he failed, for you are still in the palm of my hand, Trunks, and your unwitting association with the Sons has brought the last member of their hated line directly into my sights, and now he will die. I love you very much, my son, but if you resist you will also die. It cannot be helped."  
With that three guards stepped out with spears, surrounding them.  
"And what say you, my son?"  
Trunks looked over at Goten. He looked a little frightened, but when he met Trunks' gaze, the other could tell that the fear wasn't for himself. Goten nodded for Trunks to do as he thought was right with no blame from him. Trunks looking into his unblinking dark eyes and turned back to his mother.  
"I say; Go to hell."  
"So be it then." Bulma looked at him sadly for a moment. "Kill them."  
"Stop right there!"  
Trunks started and turned toward the door, which had been flung open. To his amazement, the commanding feminine voice had come from his younger sister. "Bra-chan?"  
"Stay alive and safe, daughter; leave the room."  
"I heard every word you said!" Bra seethed as she stared at her mother. "I will not let this continue while there is life in me!"  
There must have been a signal that Trunks missed, because the room was filled with guards that held their spears on the Queen Mother and the three guards at her disposal. Bra's group far outnumbered the other, and they were quickly disarmed.  
"Come away from there, brother," Bra commanded without tearing her gaze from her mother.  
Trunks paused, then came to his mother. He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. "Goodbye, mother. I hope for your soul that you are not as evil a person as you have made yourself out to be in these past ten minutes." With that he stepped back, receiving no response from his mother. Trunks took Goten gently by the arm and led him from the room, pushing him out into the hall. For himself, he remained beside his sister.  
"And what wouldst thou do now, Bra?"  
Bra looked at her mother for another moment. "She drove father over the edge," Bra whispered. "There towards the end when you were sent on endless peace missions, he drifted further and further away, trapped in a cage of my mother's iron will." Tears made their way down her cheeks, and her small body trembled. "But I still love her."  
"You always will," Trunks told her. "She is your mother."  
Bra shuddered, long and drawn out with pain. "Kill them."  
It was done before Trunks could blink, and the guards then came and kneeled at her feet and those of Trunks, hailing them.  
The Captain of the guards rose and looked down at the young princess. "I heard everything as well; you did the right thing."  
"Did I, Trunks?"  
"Time will tell," he said at last, unable to look away from the bodies. "I must go."  
"Must you?"  
"I will be back. I promise, I'll always be your brother and I'll always be there when you need me. But for now, for me, I must go. And you shall be the queen and maybe some day marry who you choose." Trunks turned then and walked into the hall, unaware that tears fell down his face until Goten reached up and touched him, then took him by the hand in silence and led him from the castle out into the city, where he was taken to a house and put into a bed.  
Videl was there, she took his blood-splattered clothing and Goten sat on the edge of his bed, looking into his eyes with love.  
"The city is the city, and it does not belong to me. Tomorrow we head for the forest. I want you to come, and be with me, Trunks," Goten said, taking his hand.  
At the moment, the idea was appealing; the place where he had found freedom in everything from the skies to the river. But for now, all the former prince wanted was to sleep... sleep and forget.  
Goten kissed him on the forehead and stayed close to him until he fell asleep. And then Goten crept from the room and wept bitterly outside the door; he wept for his family and friends and the innocent people, and he wept for his lover's shattered family and his own, and he wept that this world his niece would come into.  
And at the end when he thought, Goten spared tears for the princess who had lost her childhood that day. The prince who had lost his background; his life. Even for himself, leaving the old ways behind, and starting over anew only to find that that which he had sought had been a hoax.  
And when Videl came to find Goten, his head was buried into his hands, and his tears ran dry.

OSHIMAI

This story felt long! And I didn't start out to make a psychotic Bulma. No one ever really thinks it of her over Vegeta, though, do they? Also, my religious references throughout the story were to interface the story with its time period, where the church was all, and not to impress any type of religious beliefs on a reader. You like my story, maybe? Q&C Welcome.


End file.
